A KING AND HIS GREYHOUND

A royal hunt swept out across the plain.
The monarch called for someone in his train
To bring a greyhound, and the handler brought
A dark, sleek dog, intelligent, well-taught;
A jewelled gold collar sparkled at its throat,
Its back was covered by a satin coat-
Gold anklets clasped its paws; its leash was made
Of silk threads twisted in a glistening braid.
The king thought him a dog who'd understand,
And look the silk leash in his royal hand;
The dog ran just behind his lord, then found
A piece of bone abandoned on the ground-
He stopped to sniff, and when the king saw why,
A glance of fury flashed out from his eye.
"When you're with me," he said, "Your sovereign king,
How dare you look at any other thing?"
He snapped the leash and to his handler cried:
"Let this ill-mannered brute roam far and wide.
He's mine no more-better for him if he
Had swallowed pins than found such liberty!"
The handler stared and tried to remonstrate:
"The dog, my lord, deserves an outcast's fate;
But we should keep the satin and gold."
The king said: "No, do just as you are told;
Drive him, exactly as he is, away-
And when he comes back to himself some day,
He'll see the riches that he bear and know
That he was mine, a king's, but long ago.".....

                                                               ATTAR