Today's Beautiful Gem: "Time" by the Arab poet al-Ma'arri
translated by R. A. Nicholson

"In the casket of the Hours
Events deep-hid
Wait on their guardian Powers
To raise the lid.

"And the Maker infinite,
Whose poem is Time,
He need not weave in it
A forced stale rhyme.

"The nights pass so,
Voices dumb,
Without sense quick or slow
Of what shall come.

"By Allah's will preserving
From misflight,
The barbs of Time unswerving
On us alight.

"A loan is all he gives
And takes again;
With his gift happy lives
The folly of men."

Om Santih! Peace! - J. K. Mohana Rao

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