Chinese and Arabian Literature - E. Wilson - The Search For Mecca

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SELECTIONS FROM ARABIAN POETRY
ON THE INCOMPATIBILITY OF PRIDE AND
TRUE GLORY"
Think not, Abdallah, pride and fame
Can ever travel hand in hand
With breast oppos'd, and adverse aim,
On the same narrow path they stand.
Thus youth and age together meet,
And Hfe's divided moments share;
This can't advance till that retreat,
What's here increas'd, is lessen'd there.
And thus the falling shades of night
Still struggle with the lucid ray,
And e'er they stretch their gloomy flight
Must win the lengthen'd space from day.
Abou Alola.
THE DEATH OF NEDHAM ALMOLK
Thy virtues fam'd thro' every land.
Thy spotless life, in age and youth,
Prove thee a pearl, by nature's hand,
Form'd out of purity and truth.
Too long its beams of Orient light
Upon a thankless world were shed;
Allah has now reveng'd the slight,
And call'd it to its native bed.
Shehal Addaulet.
LINES TO A LOVER
When you told us our glances soft, timid and mild,
Could occasion such wounds in the heart,
Can ye wonder that yours, so ungovern'd and wild,
Some wounds to our cheeks should impart?
•• Abou Alola is esteemed as one of deter him from the pursuit of literature,
the most excellent of the Arabian poets. Abou Alola died at Maara in the year
He was born blind, but this did not 449, aged eighty-six.
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