Stranger Of Athens Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

From Solon the Athenian, askedth Croesus of Lydia
for his love of knowledge, and distant travels.
Who happens the happiest? Having shown him
treasures of Kingdom, for three and four days.
Tellus of Athens, as he lived, happy with sons
their sons, in comfort and surpassing in gallantry,
his life laid, on the side of countrymen, honored.
Next askedth the King, who bethought, he may find
a second place. Solon's reply was, ‘The two sons,
who took their mother to the temple, of strong
bodies, who there died and were praised.
The King dismayed. ‘What, stranger of Athens,
is my happiness, then, so utterly set at naught
by thee, that thou dost not put on a level
with private men? ' O Croesus, replieth the other,
‘A long life gives one to witness much, and
experience much oneself, that one would
not choose'.‘Seventy year life, contain twenty
six thousand two hundred and fifty days,
"Hence man is wholly accident". ‘He who
possesses great store of riches, is no nearer
happiness than he who has, what suffices
for his daily needs. Unless that luck attend
upon him, till the end of his life. Many of the
wealthiest are unfavoured by fortune, and many
whose means were moderate have had excellent
luck. But for two things the wealthy excel,
To better able to content desires, and bear up
against sudden calamity. The other has less
ability to withstand these evil.(from which his
good luck keeps him clear) . But he enjoys,
the blessings of whole limbs, a stranger to disease,
free from misfortune. Happy in his children,
and comely to look upon.
In addition to all this, if he ends his life well,
he is of a truth the man of happiness.
Call him, until he die, not happy but fortunate.
Scarcely indeed, can any man unite all these
advantages. He who united the great number
of these and retaining them to the day of his death
then dies peaceably, that man alone, sire,
is, in my judgment entitled to bear the name of happy.'
It behoves us to mark well the end:
for oftentimes, God, gives men a gleam of happiness,
and then plunges them into ruins.

-Adapted from Herodotus (485 - 425 BC) , book II, Histories.

Sadiqullah Khan
Islamabad
May 23,2014.

Croesus Receiving Tribute from a Lydian Peasant,1629 by Claude Vignon (1593-1670) @ Wikimedia Commons