Sacred Texts  Islam  Index  Previous  Next 


Salaman and Absal, by Jami, tr. Edward Fitzgerald, [1904], at sacred-texts.com


p. 30

XVII.

When from The Sage these words Salámán heard,
The breath of Wisdom round his Palate blew;
He said—"Oh Darling of the Soul of Plato,
"To whom a hundred Aristotles bow;
"Oh Thou that an Eleventh to the Ten
"Original Intelligences addest,—
"I lay my Face before Thee in the Dust,
"The humblest Scholar of thy Court am I;
"Whose every word I find a Well of Wisdom,
"And hasten to imbibe it in my Soul.
"But clear unto thy clearest Eye it is,
"That Choice is not within Oneself—To Do,
"Not in The Will, but in The Power, to Do.
"From that which I originally am
"How shall I swerve? or how put forth a Sign
"Beyond the Power that is by Nature Mine?"


Next: XVIII