Page:The Bird of Time (Naidu).djvu/100



old woman sits out in the street 'Neath the boughs of a banyan tree, And hears the bright echo of hurrying feet, The pageant of life going blithely and fleet To the feast of eternity.

Her tremulous hand holds a battered white bowl, If perchance in your pity you fling her a dole; She is poor, she is bent, she is blind, But she lifts a brave heart to the jest of the days, And her withered, brave voice croons its paean of praise, Be the gay world kind or unkind:
 * La ilaha illa-l-Allah,
 * La ilaha illa-l-Allah,
 * Muhammad-ar-Rasul-Allah."

84