Page:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 08.djvu/115



O skyey wheel, all base men you supply

With baths, mills, and canals that run not dry,

While good men have to pawn their goods for bread:

Pray, who would give a fig for such a sky?

A potter at his work I chanced to see,

Pounding some earth and shreds of pottery;

I looked with eyes of insight, and methought

'Twas Adam's dust with which he made so free!

The Saki knows my genus properly,

To all woe's species he holds a key;

Whene'er my mood is sad he brings me wine,

And that makes all the difference to me!

Dame Fortune! all your acts and deeds confess

That you are foul oppression's votaress;

You cherish bad men, and annoy the good;

Is this from dotage, or sheer foolishness?

You, who in carnal lusts your time employ,

Wearing your precious spirit with annoy,

Know that these things you set your heart upon

Sooner or later must the soul destroy!

Hear from the spirit-world this mystery:

Creation is summed up, O man, in thee;

Angel and demon, man and beast art thou,

Yea, thou art all thou dost appear to be!