are more fish than in this. First let us manage their business, and then let us turn this way.' Now, if events are to take this course, I must detach my heart from sweet life, and must fix it on the bitterness of death.' As soon as the Crab heard these tidings, it went back with all haste, and going to the fish, recounted to them this dismal news just as it had heard it. Hereupon, a commotion ensuing among them, they, in company with the Crab, betook themselves to the Heron, and said, 'Such and such intelligence has reached us from thee, and has wrested the reins of counsel from our hands; COUPLET. The more that we from head to foot this matter still survey, The more from weakness, compass-like, we wander far astray.1 Now we would consult with you for He who is consulted is trustworthy.' It behoves a wise man, even when enemies apply to him for advice, not to slight the obligation of counseling rightly, especially in a matter where the advantage may revert to himself, and thou thyself sayest that the continuation of thy existence is bound up in us, and that thy life is dependent on our continuing to be. Therefore what dost thou consider advisable in our affair?' The Heron replied, 'I have myself heard this speech from the tongue of the fishermen, and there is no possibility of opposing them, and I can think of nothing but this device,-I know a pool in the neigbourhood of this, the water of which, in purity, boasts of rivaling the real dawn, and surpasses the world-displaying mirror in showing the images of forms. sand may be counted at the bottom of it, and the eggs of the fish may be seen in its basin, and yet with all this, neither can the diver of the understanding reach to its bottom, nor the traveller of the fancy see its shore, and the net of no fisherman has fallen in that lake, and the fish of that water have experienced no captivity but the chain of water." COUPLET. A lake it is which like an ocean flows A sea which neither source nor limit knows. The grains of If you could migrate thither, you might pass the remainder of yonr life in security and contentment, and delight and ease.' They replied, 'The thought is good, but without thy aid and friendly assistance, our departure thither is impossible.' The Heron answered, 'I will not withhold from you whatever strength and power I possess: but time presses; every moment the fisher 1 Sar gashtah here significs wandering from its head,' which the points of the compasses do when they are used. I have found it impossible to carry out the play on words in English. 2 The MSS. and the lithographed edition read kunam, but since the plural is used in the preceding verses, I think it would be better to read kuním. 3 According to the Orientals there are two dawns, the subh-i kázib' false dawn,' and the subh-i sádik, or 'true dawn.' 4 The ripple of the water is compared to a chain. men may come, and the opportunity will be lost.' The fishes besought him, and after much entreaty, it was determined that every day he should remove some fish and convey them to that lake. The Heron, then, every morning carried some fish, and on the top of a hillock, which was near, devoured them, and when it returned, the others hasted to remove and emigrate, and sought for precedence and priority over one another; and wisdom wept with a warning eye over their folly and unwariness, and time, with its thousand eyes, shed tears over their lamentable condition. And undoubtedly any one who is beguiled by the flattery of an enemy and thinks fit to place confidence in a mean person of innate wickedness, this is his punishment. When many days had passed, the desire of (going to) this lake entered into the head of a Crab also. He wished to remove, and informed the Heron of that idea. The Heron reflected, 'There is not a more thorough enemy of mine than this. My best plan is to convey him to his friends.' He then advanced, and having taken the Crab on his neck, turned his face towards the resting-place of the fishes. The Crab, who saw the bones of the fish from a distance, perceived how the matter stood. He reflected that a wise man, when he sees an enemy intent on his life, is exerting himself for his own destruction if he neglects to struggle; and that, should he exert himself, his condition will not fail to be one of two things. If he comes off victorious, he leaves a reputation for courage upon the page of time; and if he fails, he at least escapes being reproached for want of courage and spirit in defending himself. STANZA. Should a foeman thee attack, to repel his injury Struggle with thy utmost might, if for wisdom famed thou be. The Crab then threw himself on the neck of the heron and began to squeeze his throat tightly. The Heron was old and weak, and with a little throttling became insensible, and falling down from the air was leveled with the dust. The Crab, having descended from his neck, went his way, and having stepped along the road, came to the remaining fishes, and mingling lamentations for lost friends with congratulations on the life of the survivors, informed them how matters stood. All of them rejoiced, and reckoned the death of the Heron as a renewal of existence and a life without limit. VERSE. One breath of life that we should draw when such a foe is gone, It is not for us to glory o'er our foeman's fallen day; Yet from our foe one free-drawn breath excels all thou canst say. And I have introduced this story with this object, that thou mayest know one perishes by his own stratagems and deceit and the that many a 1 mischievous effects of his perfidiousness, according to the text, but the contrivance of evil shall only encompass the authors thereof,' recoil upon himself, nevertheless I will point out a way to thee, in accordance with which, if thou shouldest act, it may be the cause of thy preservation, and of the destruction of thy enemy. The Raven said, 'One must not slight the suggestions of friends, nor act in opposition to the wise.' COUPLET. To the wine-house, thou, cupbearer! beckonest me to take my way; The jackal said, 'The advisable course is this, that thou shouldest soar aloft in air and cast thine eyes on the terraces of the houses and plains, and wherever thou beholdest an ornament which it is possible to carry, there stoop and snatch it up, and fly through the air in such a way as to be visible to men's eyes, and there is no doubt that some persons will follow thee to recover the ornament. When thou drawest near to the Serpent cast the ornament upon it, so that when the eyes of those men light upon him they may release him from the bonds of life, and then recover the ornament. And thy heart will be freed from care without any exertions on thy own part.' The Raven, in accordance with the suggestion of the jackal, turned towards an inhabited place. Presently it saw a woman who had put down an ornament on the corner of a terrace, and was herself occupied with her ablutions. The Raven carried off the ornament, and in the same manner as the jackal had said, threw it on the Serpent. The men who had come in pursuit of the Raven forthwith crushed the Serpent's head, and the Raven was set free [from its foe].' HEMISTICH. The foe departed, with him went our tears.2 Damnah said, 'I have coined this fable that thou mayest know that things which may be accomplished by artifice, are impossible by mere force.' Kalílah replied, 'The Ox possesses strength and fierceness and understanding and prudence, all these things and over such a person it is not possible to prevail by stratagem, since on every side that thou by deceit preparest a trench, he by forethought will repair it, and perhaps before thou canst make a supper off him, he may breakfast upon thee. But perhaps the story of that Hare never reached thy ears, who formed the design of entrapping the fox, and got caught itself?' Damnah asked, 'How was that?' 1 Kur'an, Fl., ch. xxxi, 43; Mar. xxxv. 42; Sale p. 329, 1, 33: The Koreish swore by God, with a most solemn oath, that if a preacher had come unto them, they would surely have been more willingly directed than any nation; but now a preacher is come unto them, it hath only increased in them their aversion from the truth, their arrogance in the earth, and their contriving of evil; but the contrivance of evil shall only encompass the authors thereof.' 2 There is a play on words in this line which I have been unable to retain in English. "The foe departed from the midst (or from the waist), and at the same time the tear from our bosom.' STORY XIII. Kalílah said, 'I have heard that a hungry wolf was running along a plain on the scent of a meal, when he beheld a Hare asleep under the shade of a bush, and whose limbs the slumber of negligence had occupied. The wolf, accounting it a rare prize, began to steal gently towards it. The Hare being put on the alert by the terror of his breath, at the alarm of his step, started up, and was about to fly. The wolf, obstructing the road, exclaimed, COUPLET. 'Approach! approach! for I from thee this distance cannot bear; The Hare, from fear of him, was fixed motionless to the spot, and beginning to supplicate, rubbed the face of humble entreaty on the ground, and said, 'I know that the fire of the hunger of the prince of beasts is burning fiercely, and that his appetite is raging in quest of food, and I with this weak body and slender form, am no more than a mouthful to the king. What is the good of me, and what will be effected' by eating me? In this neighbourhood there is a fox, who is unable to move from excessive fatness, and from his quantity of flesh finds it impossible to stir. I imagine that his flesh by its succulence, resembles the water of life, and his blood from its sweetness and freshness is comparable to sharbat made with the finest sugar. If my lord will deign to take the trouble of stepping with me, I, by any stratagem that I find practicable, will make him a prisoner, and my lord may break his fast upon him. If this gratification is obtained, why so much the better; if otherwise I myself am still your prisoner and captive. HEMISTICH. Go! lasso others, we are already thine. The wolf, deceived by his plausible speeches, took the way to the abode of the fox. Now in that vicinity there was a fox who in cunning might have lectured Satan, and in wily devices and trickery, have given lessons to fancy and imagination. VERSE. A sharp young fox he! who by craft made gain; No! rather tax-collector of that plain. He played his tricks through field and hamlet still, And from all beasts bore off the prize of skill. 1 Lit.: 'What will be bound or what loosed from eating me?' The Hare had an old quarrel with him, and on the present occasion, having obtained an opportunity, he determined on revenge, and having left the wolf at the entrance of the hole, he went into the abode of the fox and performed the customary salutations and benedictions. The fox, too, with the utmost deference, returned his salutations, and said, COUPLET. 'Welcome art thou! whence hast thou come? enter, and seated be! Come in and sit, on my two eyes a seat I'll give to thee.' 1 The Hare replied, 'It is a long time that I have continued still in the desire of being exalted by a meeting, and by reason of the obstacles of deceitful fortune, and the accidents of faithless and inconstant time, I remain excluded from that happiness. At this time a holy man who has been exalted to kingly dignity in the Egypt of divine favor, and in the region of saintship is a sage indulgent to his disciples, has honored us by coming from the sacred shrine to this country, and having heard the fame of the monastic seclusion and retirement of your highness, has made this humble slave the medium of introduction, in order that he may irradiate the eye of his heart with your world-adorning beauties, and perfume the nostrils of his soul with the sweet scents of your musk-resembling thoughts. If there be permission for a visit, it is well and good, but if the occasion does not admit of it, another time may serve. COUPLET. Or let him from this door go back, like an unexpected woe, Or stop like answered prayer to which the heavens acceptance shew.' The fox read from the page of this discourse the writing of fraud, and beheld in the mirror of these words, the delineation of the form of deceit. He said to himself, 'My advisable course is this, that I should act to them in accordance with their own conduct, and pour too part of their own mixture into their own throat. HEMISTICH. Those who cast clods are answered with a stone.' The fox then made use of sundry complimentary expressions, and said, 'We have on this account girded our loins in the service of travelers, and have for this reason opened the door of our cell in the face of holy men, that we may benefit by the beauty of their enraptured state and the perfection of their sentiments. And especially to such a saint as thou representest, and to a perfectly holy man of the kind thou describest, how can I fail in hospitality, or what particle of service could I omit? for the guest when he alights, alights to his own appointed food,' and the ancients have said, 'Aziz, besides signifiying a holy man,' is also a special title of the kings of Egypt. It is therefore well chosen here in relation to miṣr, Egypt,' which follows. |