The Three Sorts Of Happy Men
In two verses of poetry, ' Al-Mutanabbi', one of the greatest Arabian poets and philosophers, reduced the number of happy men to three classes. They have paraphrased and put into English verse, as follow:
To three life seems a summer sky:
The first who has no mind to know
The heights and depths of life below,
Nor ever asks the reason why.
The seldom he to whom life's sum
Is self at ease; who never lets
The past disturbs with dark regrets,
Not hopes and fears from days to come.
The third who, led by fancies crude,
In scorn of truth, deceived at heart,
Make fruitless dreams his better part,
And hollow hopes the highest good.