As I am browsing through The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, I stumble across the following verse: “My girth’s increase / And daily peace / Would be maintained / More by the earning / Of an harlot’s hour / Than by the power / Of all my learning.”[1] For some reason, I am astounded. This was penned a millennium ago or so. And I am still innocent of the wisdom. Of an harlot’s hour, indeed. All of a sudden, I feel angry. Of all my learning, I am wriggling by. Just. Wannabe learned ones of the years to come, stick by the great book of old. And read it from cover to cover as often as you can.

Footnote

1. London and New York: Routledge, Vol. I, 1964, p. 121.