Presently, the Vizier came to the
prison, attended by ten armed slaves, and the gaoler said to him,
'What seekest thou, O our lord the Vizier?' 'Bring me that
gallows-bird,' replied the Vizier; and the gaoler said, 'He is in
the sorriest of plights for the much beating I have given him.'
Then Cuteyt went into the prison, where he found Noureddin
repeating the following verses:
Who shall avail me against the woes that my life enwind? Indeed
my disease is sore and the remedy hard to find.
Exile hath worn my heart and my spirit with languishment, And
evil fortune hath turned my very lovers unkind.
O folk, is there none of you all will answer my bitter cry! Is
there never a merciful friend will help me of all mankind?
Yet death and the pains of death are a little thing to me; I have
put off the hope of life and left its sweets behind.
O Thou that sentest the Guide, the Chosen Prophet to men, The
Prince of the Intercessors, gifted to loose and bind,
I prithee, deliver me and pardon me my default, And put the
troubles to flight that crush me, body and mind I
The gaoler took off his clean clothes and clothing him in two
filthy garments, carried him to the Vizier. Noureddin looked at
him, and knowing him for his enemy who still sought to compass
his death, wept and said to him, 'Art thou then secure against
Fate? Hast thou not heard the saying of the poet?
Where are now the old Chosroes, tyrants of a bygone day? Wealth
they gathered; but their treasures and themselves have
passed away!
O Vizier,' continued he, 'know that God (blessed and exalted be
He!) doth whatever He will!' 'O Ali,' replied the Vizier, 'dost
thou think to fright me with this talk? Know that I mean this day
to strike off thy head in despite of the people of Bassora, and
let the days do what they will, I care not; nor will I take
thought to thy warning, but rather to what the poet says:
Let the days do what they will, without debate, And brace thy
spirit against the doings of Fate.
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