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PWB Peeps Open Thread: Poetry of al-Tai [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-18
On Avarice
Hatim al-Tai (?-578)
translated by Joseph Dacer Carlyle
How frail are riches and their joys!
Morn builds the heap which eve destroys;
Yet can they leave one sure delight—
The thought that we’ve employed them right.
What bliss can wealth afford to me,
When life’s last solemn hour I see?—
When Mavia’s sympathising sighs
Will but augment my agonies?
Can hoarded gold dispel the gloom
That death must shed around his tomb?
Or cheer the ghost which hovers there,
And fills with shrieks the desert air?
What boots it, Mavia, in the grave
Whether I loved to waste or save?
The hand that millions now can grasp
In death no more than mine shall clasp.
Were I ambitious to behold
Increasing stores of treasured gold,
Each tribe that roves the desert knows
I might be wealthy, if I chose.
But other joys can gold impart;
Far other wishes warm my heart;—
Ne’er may I strive to swell the heap
Till want and woe have ceased to weep.
With brow unaltered I can see
The hour of wealth of poverty:
I’ve drunk from both the cups of Fate,
Nor this could sink, nor that elate.
With fortune blest, I ne’er was found
To look with scorn on those around;
Nor for the loss of paltry ore,
Shall Hatim seem to Hatim poor.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on April 12, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
notes: “Hatim Al-Tai, who was mentioned in Hadiths of Mohammed as a celebrated sixth-century poet and an enlightened tribal king, but who is revered in Arab culture above all for the generosity he extended to his people and all others. When invoked today, the phrase ‘more generous than Hatim’ refers to those who act toward others with benevolence, magnanimity, and hospitality. “
A gentle reminder of how we do things: 🐱🐶🐦
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Pooties are cats; Woozles are dogs. Birds... are birds! Peeps are people.
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