And he also chafes in the chains of his sins. Following is the 23d quatrain of the same translation:
“Khayyam, why mourn for thy sins?
From grieving thus what advantage more or less dost thou gain?
Mercy was never for him who sins not,
Mercy is granted for sins; why then grieve?”
Abu’l-Ala, in a quatrain which I did not translate, goes even farther in his questioning perplexity. “Why do good since thou art to be forgiven for thy sins?” he asks.
[LXII]
“Kaaba Stone,” the sacred black stone in the Kaaba at Meccah.