Vol, Til, No. 3.] 2Vie Birds' Complaint before Solomon. 175 



[N.S.] 



*'Tha world cries to herself (but there is none among men to listen) 



saying 



*How many a hope have I destroyed, and how many a hoarder's hoard 

 haveTt scattered abroad I 



How many a corpse have T bnried beneath the ground ! 

 Long have I done this bat no tear came to my eye. 



J » 



TLeu Solomon sumnioued the fouitli, namely, tlie BalLid, and 

 said, "The birds, in thee, object to that Avhich they object to in 

 libertines and debauchees, for thou joyest not except after tasting 

 the vine." 



Ti)e Bulbul said, " Oh Prophet of God ! I cry not through 

 joy of wine, but I cry in wonder at the drinker, since ^xme con^npts 

 one's faith and angers the Lord, makes the wise foolisli. and 

 degrades the noble. When the sage drinks or the fool gulps it 

 down, he first dances like an ape through buffoonery, and next piddles 

 foully like a dog ; and theUj acting filthily like a pig, rolls in the dust 

 and lies in the road, an object of pity to friend and foe; forget- 

 ful of the Abode of Peace ^ and wearing; on his neck the order 

 of faithlessness to his Faith, and being deserving of being given 

 pus to drink, wliich is the drink of the damned and — Ah for the bitter 

 .disappointment of him that is void of all virtue and lakes delight 

 in a draught whose dregs are madness ! But blessed is he that 

 has planted in his heart the vine of ' Desire ' (*S^ /mug) ^ and has 

 trained it over the tree of * Delight' (Zaicq),^ so that the sap of 

 -^ Emotion ' (Tarah) ^ has coursed through its bi'anches, and it 

 has yielded a wonderful crop, while the breeze of 'Seeking after 

 Knowledge ' {Iradah) ^ has breathed on it, adding to its sweetness till 

 it has reached in height the final stage of 'Rapture'* (Wajd) ^ 

 and ' Chant ' {Santa' &^, wlien its gi-apes are plucked by the fingers 

 of * Fidelity/ (Wa/a) and cast into the vessels of * Content' {Uizd) 

 and pressed with the press of * Resignation under Calamity ' (As- 

 ^ahr" ^ala ^l-Bald)^ till there is extracted a wine unlike any human 

 wine, for that one is la%vful and the other not/' 



Then tlie Sulhul added ; 



*\ What a wine our cup-bearer has, 



For be has made us drunk before he gave us to drink. 



His cnpa are our ears at all tintes 



And the water with which he dilates^ his witje are oar tenrs," 



■^ 



V. 



(Blessed is he who is aroused from sloth hy Jiis own heart and 

 not by the wisdom preached by birds). 



So Solomon (on whom be peace) wondered at tlieir speech, 

 and pondered on their sagacity and their well-expressed ideas, and 



>'V\d : 



to 



rv 



\ 



' The Abodeof Peace, i.e.. Heaven ; not Baghdad. 



3 All these are Sufi terms* 



•^ Jrddah from which murld is derived. • 



^ ^ajd, when the soul meets with God in ecstasy. 



6 Samd' the chanting and rotatory dance of certain sects of dervishes, 



^ From Arabic poetry it appears that ifc was the usual Custom 'df tte 



