Page:Tales from the Gulistan (1928).pdf/208

On Love and Youth

of the Ullemma had been asked that, supposing one sits with a moon-faced [beauty] in a private apartment, the doors being closed, companions asleep, passion inflamed, and lust raging, as the Arab says, the date is ripe, and its guardian not forbidding—whether he thought the power of abstinence would cause the man to remain in safety. He replied: "If he remains in safety from the moon-faced one, he will not remain safe from evil speakers."

If a man escapes from his own bad lust he will not escape from the bad suspicions of accusers. It is proper to sit down to one's own work, but it is impossible to bind the tongues of men.