Purgatory May Be ParadiseA king was embarked on board a ship, which also carried a Persian slave. The boy had never been at sea, nor experienced the inconvenience of a ship. He set up a weeping and wailing, and all his limbs were in a state of trepidation; and, however much they soothed him, he was not to be pacified. The king's pleasure party was disconcerted by him; but they offered no help. On board that ship there was a physician. He said to the king: “If you will order it, I can manage to silence him.” The king replied: “It will be an act of great favor.”The physician directed that they throw the boy into the sea, and after he had plunged repeatedly, they seized him by the hair of the head and drew him close to the ship, where he grabbed the rudder with both hands and, scrambling up on to the deck, slunk into a corner and sat down quiet.The king, pleased with what he saw, said: “What art is there in this?” The physician replied: “Originally he had not experienced the danger of being drowned, and undervalued the safety of being in a ship; just as a person is aware of the preciousness of health only when he is overtaken with the calamity of sickness.”A barley loaf of bread has,O epicure, no relish for you.That is my mistress who appears so ugly to your eye.To the houris, or nymphs of paradise,Purgatory would be hell;Ask the inmates of hell whetherPurgatory is not paradise.There is a distinction between the manFolding his mistress in his armsAnd him whose two eyes are fixedOn the door expecting her.page at here
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