No money could he earn; bread, not enough for finch.
He prayed: “O God, long life and full to me Thou’st given,
To worthless sinner Thou hast shown foretaste of heaven.
I’ve slighted Thy commandments seventy years and more,
Not one day hast Thou let me pangs of want feel sore.185
No longer can I earn; I’m now Thy household guest;
I’ll harp for love of Thee, Thou giver of my feast.”
His harp on shoulder slung, he went, in quest of God,
To burial-ground of Yathrab;[275] sat down on the sod.
Said he: “I’ll ask of God the hire of my harpstrings;