{"id":8423,"date":"2022-08-30T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=8423"},"modified":"2022-08-30T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T05:00:00","slug":"an-eastern-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/an-eastern-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"An Eastern Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>From <a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn83030272\/1914-08-30\/ed-1\/seq-31\/\">The Sun, August 30, 1914<\/a>. By Alice Stone Blackwell.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Mahmoud the Great on a journey went;<br\/>His thoughts were on war and conquest bent,<br\/>Kasajas followed him, musing too;<br\/>But what his thoughts were no man knew.<br\/>The Sultan spoke, \u201cMy wise Vizier,<br\/>Marvellous things of thee I hear.<br\/>Say, is it true, as men declare,<br\/>That thou knowest the speech of the birds of the air?\u201d<br\/>Kasajas answered, \u201cSire, \u2019tis truth,<br\/>A dervish taught me the art in youth.<br\/>Whatever by birds is chirped or sung<br\/>I comprehend like my mother tongue.\u201d<br\/>Two screech owls perched on a plane tree bare;<br\/>With notes discordant they filled the air.<br\/>The Sultan pointed. \u201cTell me, pray,<br\/>What is it those birds of evil say?\u201d<br\/>Kasajas listened. \u201cO sire, I fear<br\/>To tell thee plainly the thing I hear.<br\/>Those hateful screech owls talk of thee!\u201d<br\/>\u201cVerily! What can they say of me?<br\/>Tell me the truth and have no fear.<br\/>The truth is best for a monarch\u2019s ear.\u201d<br\/>\u201cThy servant, sire, obeys thy words.<br\/>This is the talk of those evil birds:<br\/>\u2018I am content,\u2019 said the elder one,<br\/>\u2018Unto thy daughter to wed my son<br\/>If twenty villages, ruined all,<br\/>To her for her dowry portion fall.\u2019<br\/>\u2018Three times twenty such instead<br\/>Shall be her portion,\u2019 the other said.<br\/>\u2018Long may Allah, the wise and good,<br\/>Preserve the life of the great Mahmoud!<br\/>Wherever he rides there will be no lack<br\/>Of ruined villages in his track!\u2019\u201d<br\/>The Sultan\u2019s dreams were dark that night.<br\/>When came the dawn the morning light<br\/>He rose from a couch where he found no ease<br\/>And sent an embassage of peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The Sun, August 30, 1914. By Alice Stone Blackwell. Mahmoud the Great on a journey went;His thoughts were on war and conquest bent,Kasajas followed him, musing too;But what his thoughts were no man knew.The Sultan spoke, \u201cMy wise Vizier,Marvellous things of thee I hear.Say, is it true, as men declare,That thou knowest the speech [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,18],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-8423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-the-sun","tag-alice-stone-blackwell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}