At what thou wiselier lettest shine unsoiled

By breath of word. That this last cherry soothes

A roughness of my palate, that I know:

His Maker knows why Mushtari was made."


Verse-making was least of my virtues: I viewed with despair

Wealth that never yet was but might be—all that verse-making were

If the life would but lengthen to wish, let the mind be laid bare.

So I said "To do little is bad, to do nothing is worse"—

And made verse.