A Traveler's Narrative
page 78
doctors, the scholars, the nobles? Where is the keenness of
their glances, the sharpness of their sight, the subtlety of their
thoughts, the soundness of their understandings? Where are
their hidden treasures and their apparent gauds, their bejeweled
thrones and their ample couches? Alas! All have been laid
waste, and the decree of God hath rendered them as scattered
dust! Emptied is what they treasured up, and dissipated is what
they collected, and dispersed is what they concealed: they have
become [such that] thou seest naught but their empty places,
their gaping roofs, their uprooted beams, their new things
waxed old. As for the discerning man, verily wealth will not
divert him from regarding the end; and for the prudent man,
riches will not withhold him from turning toward [God] the
Rich, the Exalted. Where is he who held dominion over all
whereon the sun arose, and who spent lavishly and sought
after curious things in the world and what is therein created?
Where is the lord of the swarthy squadron and the yellow
standard? Where is he who ruled Zawrá, (44) and where he who
wrought injustice in [Damascus] the spacious? Where are they
at whose bounty treasures were afraid, at whose openhandedness
and generosity the ocean was dismayed? Where is he
whose arm was stretched forth in rebelliousness, whose heart
turned away from the Merciful One? Where is he who used to
make choice of pleasures and cull the fruits of desires? Where
are the dames of the bridal chambers, and the possessors of
beauty? Where are their waving branches and their spreading
boughs, their lofty palaces and trellised gardens? Where is the
smoothness of the expanses thereof and the softness of their
breezes, the rippling of their waters and the murmur of their
winds, the cooing of their doves and the rustling of their trees?
Where are their laughing hearts and their smiling teeth? Woe
unto them! They have descended to the abyss and become
companions to the pebbles; today no mention is heard of them
44. Baghdád.
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