Epigrams

Hear what once the pigmy clever To the stupid giant said: Things are not of highest value Which do highest rear their head; The sluggish horse is nothing better Than the donkey lowest bred.

The man who of his words is sparing His strength and weakness hidden keeps; Think not every thicket empty, Perchance in one a tiger sleeps.

If thou would’st ruin ’scape, and blackest woe, Unto these words, these precious words attend: Never be heedless of a mortal foe, Nor choose a proud and envious man for friend.

Sit down with your friends in delightful repose When war and contention you see ’midst your foes; But when to an end their contentions they bring, Then, then seize the bow, and get ready the sling.

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.

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.

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.