Poems By Richard Chenevix Trench: New ed |
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AN EASTERN VERSION OF THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS. |
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AN EASTERN VERSION OF THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS.
There went a man from home: and to his neighbours twainHe gave, to keep for him, two sacks of golden grain.
Deep in his cellar one the precious charge concealed;
And forth the other went and strewed it in his field.
The man returns at last—asks of the first his sack:
‘Here, take it; ’tis the same; thou hast it safely back.’
Unharmed it shows without, but when he would explore
His sack's recesses, corn there finds he now no more;
One half of all therein proves rotten and decayed,
Upon the other half have worm and mildew preyed.
The putrid heap to him in ire he doth return;
And of the other asks, ‘Where is my sack of corn?’
Who answered, ‘Come with me, behold how it has sped,’
And took and showed him fields with waving harvests spread.
Then cheerfully the man laughed out and cried, ‘This one
Had insight, to make up for the other that had none:
The letter he observed, but thou the precept's sense,
And thus to thee and me shall profit grow from hence.
In harvest thou shalt fill two sacks of corn for me,
The residue of right remains in full for thee.’
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