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

SELECTIONS FROM ARABIAN POETRY 91
Say that you hate, and freely show
That age displeases youth
And I may love you when I know
That you can tell the truth.
Caliph AUnonklafi Laimrillah.
ON PROCRASTINATION ^2
Youth is a drunken noisy hour,
With every folly fraught;
But man, by age's chast'ning power.
Is sober'd into thought.
Then we resolve our faults to shun.
And shape our course anew;
But ere the wise reform's begun
Life closes on our view.
The travellers thus who wildly roam,
Or heedlessly delay.
Are left, when they should reach their home,
Benighted on the way.
Hebat Allah Ibn Altalmith.
THE EARLY DEATH OF ABOU ALHASSAN ALY ''
Soon hast thou run the race of life,
Nor could our tears thy speed control
Still in the courser's gen'rous strife
The best will soonest reach the goal.
As Death upon his hand turns o'er
The diff'rent gems the world displays.
He seizes first to swell his store
The brightest jewel he surveys.
*2 Ibn Altalmith died in the 560th year thirty-fourth Abasside Caliph, and the
of tf He.,ra. at the advanced age of 1-^^ --p.ng t^h^r« who en.oyed^th^s
°"« Xas'sar Ledin Allah was the ished by the Tartars in the year 656.
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