Poetry Thursday, with Gibran (again)

TEARS AND LAUGHTER

Upon the bank of the nile at eventide, a hyena met a crocodile and they stopped and greeted one another.
The hyena spoke and said, "How goes the day with you, Sir?"
And the crocodile answered saying, "It goes badly with me. Sometimes in my pain and sorrow I weep, and then the creatures always say, 'They are but crocodile tears.' And this wounds me beyond all telling."
Then the hyena said, "You speak of your pain and your sorrow, but think of me also, for a moment. I gaze at the beauty of the world, its wonders and its miracles, and out of sheer joy I laugh even as the day laughs. And then the people of the jungle say, 'It is but the laughter of a hyena.'" 

-Khalil Gibran, The Wanderer