Oriental wit and wisdom, or, the "Laughable stories" / collected by Mar Gregory John Bar-Hebraeus ; translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge.

  • Bar Hebraeus
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Oriental wit and wisdom, or, the "Laughable stories" / collected by Mar Gregory John Bar-Hebraeus ; translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    237/286 (page 195)
    Yet I will travel on the top thereof, even though it blaze with flame. The pure soul which was in thy body hath become perfect, And it hath straightway become mingled with the pha¬ lanxes of the Watchers and of the spiritually wise; Above the fiery coals among the wheels [hast thou] set 145 thy footstep. If thou couldst permit me to see the divine Shechinah, The eye of the soul which though now it were bashful. Yet at the sight of thy shadow would it become luminous. This despised form [of mine] would be unworthy to see thee. Therefore hath thy Lord made for thee a house in the 150 heavens. In all the world my soul hath become a wretched and apostate thing. And thyself alone in all the world wast its friend. Why didst thou leave it in despair and solitude? Why didst thou not take it with thee as a hand¬ maiden or as a servant? Since it never at any time spared itself in [thy] service, 155 Why didst thou leave it in tears behind thee like a rejected thing? From the time when it came into being it never heard the voice of weeping. But through thy departure it hath become skilled in the arts of grief. What one who mourneth for a lover or for a mistress, Payeth heed to the voice of him that draweth nigh 160 with speech of consolation? Though thinking to give comfort to others like the tragedian.