V.
It is a curious circumstance that Homer the Greek poet, Radaki the
Persian poet, and Bashshar bin Burd the Arabian poet, were all blind.
Here is a specimen of one of the verses of the last-named:
'Yes, my friends! my ear is charmed by a person in that tribe; for the ear is sometimes enamoured sooner than the eye. You say that I am led by one whom I never saw; know that the ear as well as the eye can inform the mind of facts.'
He composed also the following verse, which is the most gallant of any made by the poets of that epoch:
'Yes, by Allah! I love the magic of your eyes, and yet I dread the weapons by which so many lovers fell.'