The Scented Garden

116 The contempt of the mystic for opinion. XXXII THE BULL-FROGS In ill repute of pious folk1 The Sufi seeth but a joke. The traveller, passing by the mere, Heeds not the frogs, but lets them croak. So in thy podex I delight, Nor heed at all what Allah spoke.2 While stands my member, blooms by rose, Wine I can drink, or huqqa3 smoke, So long I laugh at Aflatun, And fun at Aristu4 I poke. Thy buttocks with their splendid sun This joy in me have ever woke ; In rapture alway El Qahar His spirit is content to soak. 1. Pious folk — Wahhabi [Persian text] the Mus- lim strictarians. 2. Obscure. I doubt if the Q’uran forbids sodo- my. See Q’uran XV, where the fault of the people appears to be their breach of hospitality, always a stigma in primitive communities. The Bible is just as broadminded on the point, both in the Story of