The Judgement Of Ali

Translated by S. Folwer Wright

Note: One typed M.S. page remains. See 'literary notes' - written Dec 29 & 30th. 1941.

Shot struggling downward from the skies above,
A hawk entangled with a harmless dove
Fell blindly to the judgement seat; and when
The grave eyes of Ali, the King of Men,
Looked down upon them in his lap that lay,
The hawk was swifter than the dove to say:
"Hail, Lord of Faith! Let not thy voice reject
The justice of my plea. Where dawns reflect
The crag that rises midst the Meeting Streams,
A tree rock-rooted takes the morning's beams,
And all the weight of tempest. There I built
My hazardous nest, and thence, with God to aid,
This morn to feed my starving brood I flew.
Long hours I searched before at last I knew
My prayer was heard. This dove's too-venturous flight
Betrayed it in the skies' unsheltered height.
No justice can withhold my taken prey;
For how, except by God's design I slay,
Can life be mine?"

The trembling dove replied:
"Oh, King of Men! and was not God my guide
To find thy mercy? Where the woods are wide
Beneath Mount Bambor is my home, and there
My hungry children wait. Except I bear
The corn to feed them that my crop contains
They can but die. Such cause of right constrains
That my deliverance will thy lips declare;
For now beneath thy sight the truth is bare."

Then judgement gave the King of Men: "Not I,
My brother, can thy reasoned right deny.
Yet fear not, sister. . . . Bring a knife." And when

The End