1916.] Quatrains of Abu Sa'id bin AbVl Khair. 207 



44. 



My poor heart is full of sorrow ; forgive it and ask not. 



A hundred disasters wait in ambush for me ; forgive me and 

 ask not. 



Were Thou to ask me what I have done, I were ashamed. 



O Thou most merciful of the merciful, forgive me and ask not. 



45. 



Thou who art a Friend to the friendless of the world, 

 Whose bounty, though it be a grain's weight, sufficeth the 



whole world ; 



1 am friendless ; and Thou art the helper of the friendless. 

 Hearken, Lord, to my lonely cry. 



46. 



O Thou who knowest the secrets of all men's hearts, 



Who 



O Lord, grant me repentance and accept my excuses, 

 Thou who dost grant repentance and forgiveness to all. 



47. 



Join thou the ranks of My friends, and fear not ; 



Be thou dust at the door of My threshold, and fear not. 



If all the world seek thy life, 



Be not anxious ; come unto Me, and fear not. 



48. 



Thou art in my eyes : else would I flood them with tears ; 

 Thou art in my heart, else would I drown it in blood. 

 My soul hath only the hope of Union with Thee : were it n 

 By a thousand devices I should drive it out. 



Line 1: literally, "I would make an Oxus of 

 them." The " occasion " of this quatrain is stated 

 by the author of the M ajdlis-ul-ushshdq — pro- 

 bably without the least foundation— to be as 

 follows : — "There was once an elegant youth whose 

 father was a boatman on the river Oxus, and a 

 servant of the Sultan Mahmud. On his heart, as 

 upon a mirror, there fell suddenly the image of 

 love for the hakim. None told the sage, but one 

 dav he sent the young man this quatrain." The 

 hakim is Hakim-i-Sana'i, a celebrated Sufi poet 

 who died in a.d. 1151. And as Mahmud died in 



