C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
The Death of the Poor Is Repose
By Sa’dī (c. 1213–1291)
From the ‘Rose-Garden’: Translation of the Kama Shastra Society
I
NOTICED the son of a rich man, sitting on the grave of his father, and quarreling with a Dervish-hoy, saying:—“The sarcophagus of my father’s tomb is of marble, tessellated with turquoise-like bricks! But what resembles thy father’s grave? It consists of two contiguous bricks, with two handfuls of mud thrown over it.” The Dervish-boy listened to all this, and then observed: “By the time thy father is able to shake off those heavy stones which cover him, mine will have reached Paradise.”
An ass with a light burdenNo doubt walks easily.A Dervish who carries only the load of povertyWill also arrive lightly burdened at the gate of death;Whilst he who lived in happiness, wealth, and ease,Will undoubtedly on all these accounts die hard;At all events, a prisoner who escapes from all his bondsIs to be considered more happy than an Amir taken prisoner.
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