Classic Poem

Ali Bek, the Yoozbashee, has three wives.
They are comely and virtuous. But he is never home.
All day he drinks wine like a Christian, smokes opium,
And kisses the full-lipped daughters of the damned Jews.

Yakoob and Daud are his two young sons.
Nobody watches the stepping of their feet.
At home they hear no sound at all
Except their mothers, crying their eyes out.

So Yakoob and Daud leave the house.
They, too, drink wine like Christians, smoke opium,
And kiss the full-lipped daughters of the damned Jews.
They, too, trample on every law of the sainted Koran.

Ali Bek, the Yoozbashee, hears the gossip of it.
So, with blows and curses, he admonishes his sons
Because they had put their feet upon a path of life
Fully as wicked and ungodly as his own.

An old man witnesses the scene, and says to him:
" Consider, O Yoozbashee, that when the master beats the drum,
Has he then the right to blame his children
Because they dance to the tune he plays?"