5.
The hungry hound upon the bone will pounce
He prowling finds, and not mistrustful pass;
He asks not whom it did belong to once,
The prophet’s camel or the sinner’s ass.
6.
Great Aaroun is dead, and is nothing, the man
Who left forty castles replete with gold store;
But living though dead is the great Nourshwan,
In the good name he left he has death triumphed o’er.
7.
Though God provides our daily bread,
Yet all must seek that bread I ween;
Though all must die, there is no need
To rush the dragon’s jaws between.
8.
THE KING AND HIS FOLLOWERS.
If in the boor’s garden the King eats a pear,
His servants rapacious the tree will uptear;
For every five eggs he gives bounteously, more
Than five hundred fowls will his armies devour.
9.
THE DEVOUT MAN AND THE TYRANT.
If the half of a loaf the devout man receives,
The half of that half to the wretched he gives;
But no sooner a tyrant one kingdom has ta’en,
Than the wish of his heart is another to gain.