"A WONDERFUL TALE."
EL-MUBÁRRAD[1] relates: As I was journeying from el-Básrah to Baghdâd, I passed by a lunatic asylum, and in it I beheld a madman than whom I never saw a more elegant or better dressed man. One of his hands was laid upon his breast; and as I drew near he recited, saying:
Allâh knows that I am sad;
It is impossible to reveal my pain.
Two souls are mine. One country
Holds the one, another land the other.
If I contemplate the Resurrection, even Patience' self
Against its sternness nought avails.[2]
And what my soul here present feels,
That feels my soaring soul in upward flight.
- ↑ It is an anachronism to introduce the following tale in this place. El-Mubárrad was not born till more than forty years after the death of el-Máhdy.
Abu-ʾl-ʾAbbâs Muhammad, generally known by the name of el-Mubárrad, was a native of el-Básrah, but resided at Baghdad. He was an eminent author, philologer, and grammarian. He was born A.H. 210 (A.D. 826); or, as some say, A.H. 207, and died at Baghdâd A.H. 285 or 286 (A.D. 900).
- ↑ Meaning that he was predestinated to his lot, and that nothing could change it.
