One balmy day in gentle June,
While sporting in my bath so free,
In came a friend with perfumed clay,
Art thou of musk or ambergris?
Thou art like both: I cannot tell
Whence comes the charm, but this I know,
I am delighted with thy smell.
"I was a piece of worthless clay
Until the blooming rose I knew;
For by its side I drank delight,
And drank its heavenly fragrance too.
But for that rose I should be still
Mere worthless clay for idle ends;
Learn well the lesson I impart —
Be careful in your choice of friends."
Saadi Shirazi [Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāz] (1210 - 1292) Iran
Translator not stated
Source: Flowers of song from many lands; being short poems and detached verses gathered from various languages and rendered into English, by Frederic Rowland Marvin, Pafraets Book Company, 1902
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