In two verses of poetry, Al-Mutanabbi, one of the greatest Arabian
poets and philosophers, reduces the number of happy men to three
classes. They have been paraphrased and put into English verse by a
friend, as follows:
To three life seems a summer sky:
The first who has no mind to know
The heights and depths of life below,
Nor ever asks the reason why.
The second he to whom life's sum
Is self at ease; who never lets
The past disturb with dark regrets,
Nor hopes and fears from days to come.
The third who, led by fancies crude,
In scorn of truth, deceived at heart,
Makes fruitless dreams his better part,
And hollow hopes the highest good.