" At this the khalif laughed heartily,
and commanded his treasurer to give Thalebi five hundred dinars of gold.
A droll story is told of the Persian poet Anwari: Passing the
market-place of Balkh one day, he saw a crowd of people standing in a
ring, and going up, he put his head within the circle and found a fellow
reciting the poems of Anwari himself as his own. Anwari went up to the
man, and said: "Sir, whose poems are these you are reciting?" He
replied: "They are Anwari's." "Do you know him, then?" said Anwari. The
man, with cool effrontery, answered: "What do you say? I am Anwari." On
hearing this Anwari laughed, and remarked: "I have heard of one who
stole poetry, but never of one who stole the poet himself!"--Talking of
"stealing poetry," Jami tells us that a man once brought a composition
to a critic, every line of which he had plagiarised from different
collections of poems, and each rhetorical figure from various authors.
Quoth the critic: "For a wonder, thou hast brought a line of camels; but
if the string were untied, every one of the herd would run away in
different directions."
There is no little humour in the story of the Persian poet who wrote a
eulogium on a rich man, but got nothing for his trouble; he then abused
the rich man, but he said nothing; he next seated himself at the rich
man's gate, who said to him: "You praised me, and I said nothing; you
abused me, and I said nothing; and now, why are you sitting here?" The
poet answered: "I only wish that when you die I may perform the funeral
service.
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