Omniana/Volume 2/Religious Epigram

3652853Omniana — 189. Religious EpigramRobert Southey

189. Religious Epigram.

In the Mercurio Peruano, T. 1. f. 305, there is a remarkable religious epigram, written by a Persian poet, there called Suzeno, after he had been converted to Christianity. In the Spanish it forms a quatrain which it is beyond my skill to render in verse.

Quatro cosas, Dios mio
que en tu erario no tienes, te presento;
mi nada, mi necesidad, mi culpa,
y mi arrepentimiento

"Four things, O my God, I offer thee, which thou hast not in thy treasury; my nothingness, my wants, my sin, and my repentance!"