| Joseph Friedlander, comp. The Standard Book of Jewish Verse. 1917. | | | | Moses and the Dervish | | By Owen Meredith |
| | | GOD, that heaven’s seven climates hath spread forth, | |
| To every creature, even as is the worth, | |
| The lot apportions, and the use of things. | |
| If to the creeping cat were given wings | |
| No sparrow’s egg would ever be a bird. | 5 |
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| Moses the Prophet, who with God conferred, | |
| Beheld a Dervish, that, for dire distress | |
| And lack of clothes to hide his nakedness | |
| Buried his body in the desert sand. | |
| This Dervish cried: | 10 |
| “O Moses, whom the Hand | |
| Of the Most High God favors! make thy prayer | |
| That he may grant me food and clothes to wear | |
| Who knows the misery of me and the need.” | |
| |
| Then Moses prayed to God, that he would feed | 15 |
| And clothe that Dervish. | |
| Nine days after this, | |
| Returning from Mount Sinai in bliss, | |
| Having beheld God’s face, the Prophet met | |
| The Dervish in the hands of Justice, set | 20 |
| Between two officers; and all about | |
| The rabble followed him with hoot and shout | |
| And jeer. | |
| The Prophet asked of those that cried, | |
| “What hath befallen this man?” | 25 |
| And they replied, | |
| “He hath drunk wine, and having slain a man, | |
| Is going to the death.” | |
| Moses began | |
| To praise the Maker of the Universe, | 30 |
| Seeing that his prayer, though granted, proved perverse, | |
| Since God to every living soul sets forth | |
| The circumstance according to the worth. | | | | |
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