VERSES ADDRESSED TO HIS DAUGHTERS, DURING HIS IMPRISONMEN

BY MOTAMMED BEN ABAD, SULTAN OF SEVILLE.

Translated into English Verse by J. D. Carlyle, BD

"Upon a certain festival," says Ebn Khocan, a contemporary writer, "during the confinement of Motammed, he was waited upon by his children, who came to receive his blessing, and to offer up their prayers for his welfare. Amongst these some were females, and their appearance was truly deplorable. They were naturally beauteous as the moon, but, from the rags which covered them, they seemed like the moon under an eclipse: their feet were bare and bleeding, and every trace of their former splendour was completely effaced. At this melancholy spectacle their unfortunate father gave way to his sorrow in the following verses."]

With jocund heart and cheerful brow,

   I used to hail the festal morn:

 How must Motammed greet it now?--

   A prisoner, helpless and forlorn;

While these dear maids, in beauty's bloom,

   With want oppressed, with rags o'erspread,

 By sordid labours at the loom

   Must earn a poor, precarious bread.

Those feet, that never touched the ground

   Till musk or camphor strewed the way,

 Now, bare and swoll'n with many a wound,

   Must struggle through the miry clay.

Those radiant cheeks are veiled in woe,

   A shower descends from every eye;

 And not a starting tear can flow

   That wakes not an attending sigh.

Fortune, that whilom owned my sway,

   And bowed obsequious to my nod,

 Now sees me destined to obey,

   And bend beneath oppression's rod.

Ye mortals, with success elate,

   Who bask in Hope's delusive beam,

 Attentive view Motammed's fate,

   And own that bliss is but a dream.

VERSES ADDRESSED BY WALADATA

VERSES ADDRESSED BY WALADATA, DAUGHTER OF MOHAMMED ALMOSTAKFI BILLAH, KHALIF OF SPAIN, TO SOME YOUNG MEN, WHO HAD PRETENDED A PASSION FOR HERSELF AND HER COMPANIONS.

Translated into English Verse by J. D. Carlyle, BD

.

When you told us our glances, soft, timid, and mild,

   Could occasion such wounds in the heart,

 Can ye wonder that yours, so ungoverned and wild,

   Some wounds to our cheeks should impart?

The wounds on our cheeks are but transient, I own,

   With a blush they appear and decay;

 But those on the heart, fickle youths, ye have shown

   To be even more transient than they.

Story of the Foolish Head-Man

SOURCE : TIBETAN FOLK TALES TRANSLATED BY A. L. SHELTON, M.D. 1925

"Do not brag of your family--without fame they may be--the strain on the string of an arrow soon makes it useless. The horse traveling fast comes to the end of his strength very quickly."

                                                                                                                             Tibetan Proverb.

Source: albenizibenz.blogspot.com

Once upon a time, away among the mountains, were located two little villages. One was called Jangdo and the other Jangmeh. One head-man ruled over these two villages. He was a very wise man, but had an only son who was foolish, with a wife that was very wise. After a while the old man died, and his place had to be filled by the son, who was an idiot. A river ran alongside of the village and a takin died and fell into the water. The upper village claimed it and the lower village claimed it, so both villages came with the request that it belonged to them. 

His wife said to him, "Now you do not know to which place this animal belongs, but you must go and decide about it. Decide in this way: say that the upper half above the ribs belongs to the upper village and the lower part belongs to the lower village and the middle part is yours because you are a middle man." He did as his wife said, and when the people heard this decision they thought, "Why, we have always thought this man to be foolish, but he is a very wise man," and his fame spread abroad.

After two or three months had passed, a leopard died and floated down the river, stopping in the same place as the takin, and the villagers quarreled again. Only this time they did not want it, so the upper village said, It is yours, and the lower village said, It is yours. They finally took it to the head-man, who thought to himself, "I will not ask my wife this time, I will do it myself. I know how it ought to be done and I will do it just as I did the takin." So he divided it just as he had done before. But one village said, "Well, we don't want this part," and the other village said, "We don't want ours either." So they gave it all to the head-man, who put it all on a horse and took it home. His reputation for wisdom was done and the people said he had turned again into a foolish man.