For in the city, at least, success well deserves the compliments which those who fail bestow upon it. What Montaigne said of greatness, therefore, Khalid must have said of success. If we can not attain it, let us denounce it. And in what terms does he this, O merciful Allah! We translate a portion of the apostrophe in the K.L. MS. , and not the bitterest, by any means.
“O Success,” the infuriated failure exclaims, “how like the Gorgon of the Arabian Nights thou art! For does not everyone whom thou favorest undergo a pitiful transformation even from the first bedding with thee? Does not everything suffer from thy look, thy touch, thy breath? The rose loses its perfume, the grapevine its clusters, the bulbul its wings, the dawn its light and glamour. O Success, our lords of power today are thy slaves, thy helots, our kings of wealth. Everyone grinds for thee, everyone for thee lives and dies. … Thy palaces of silver and gold are reared on the souls of men. Thy throne is mortised with their bones, cemented with their blood. Thou ravenous Gorgon, on what bankruptcies thou art fed, on what failures, on what sorrows! The railroads sweeping across the continents and the steamers ploughing through the seas, are laden with sacrifices to thee. Ay, and millions of innocent children are torn from their homes and from their schools to be offered to thee at the sacrificial-stone of the Factories and Mills. The cultured, too, and the wise, are counted among thy slaves. Even the righteous surrender themselves to thee and are willing to undergo that hideous transformation. O Success, what an infernal litany thy votaries and high-priests are chanting to thee. … Thou ruthless Gorgon, what crimes thou art committing, and what crimes are being committed in thy name!”
From which it is evident that Khalid does not wish for success. Khalid is satisfied if he can maintain his hold on the few spare feet he has in the cellar, and continue to replenish his little store of lentils and olive oil.
For he would as lief be a victim of success, he assures us, as to forego his mujaddara . And still having this, which he considers a luxury, he is