Слике страница
PDF
ePub

"Save him, my God!" she inly cries-
"Save him this night-and if thine eyes
"Have ever welcom'd with delight
"The sinner's tears, the sacrifice

"Of sinners' hearts-guard him this night, "And here, before thy throne, I swear "From my heart's inmost core to tear "Love, hope, remembrance, though they be "Link'd with each quivering life-string there, "And give it bleeding all to Thee! "Let him but live,-the burning tear, "The sighs so sinful, yet so dear, "Which have been all too much his own,

"Shall from this hour be Heaven's alone.
"Youth pass'd in penitence, and age
"In long and painful pilgrimage,
"Shall leave no traces of the flame

"That wastes me now-nor shall his name
"E'er bless my lips, but when I pray
"For his dear spirit, that away
Casting from its angelic ray

"Th' eclipse of earth, he, too may shine
"Redeem'd, all glorious and all thine!
"Think-think what victory to win
"One radiant soul like his from sin,-
"One wandering star of virtue back
"To its own native, heaven-ward track.
"Let him but live, and both are Thine,
"Together thine-for, blest or crost,
"Living or dead, his doom is mine,
"And, if he perish, both are lost!"

THE next evening LALLA ROOKп was entreated by her Ladies to continue the relation of her wonderful dream; but the fearful interest that hung round the fate of HINDA and her lover had completely removed every trace of it from her mind;-much to the disappointment of a fair seer or two in her train, who prided themselves on their skill in interpreting visions, and who had already remarked, as an unlucky omen, that the Princess, on the very morning after the dream, had worn a silk dyed with the blossoms of the sorrowful tree, Nilica.

FADLADEEN, whose indignation had more than once broken out during the recital of some parts of this heterodox poem, seemed at length to have made up his mind to the infliction; and took his seat this evening with all the patience of a martyr, while the Poet resumed his profane and seditious story as follows:

To tearless eyes and hearts at ease
The leafy shores and sun-bright seas,
That lay beneath the mountain's height,
Had been a fair enchanting sight.
"Twas one of those ambrosial eves
A day of storm so often leaves
At its calm setting-when the West
Opens her golden bowers of rest,
And a moist radiance from the skies
Shoots trembling down, as from the eyes
Of some meek penitent, whose last,
Bright hours atone for dark ones past,
And whose sweet tears, o'er wrong forgiven,
Shine, as they fall, with light from heaven!

"Twas stillness all-the winds that late

Had rush'd through KERMANS's almond groves, And shaken from her bowers of date

That cooling feast the traveller loves,*

Now lull'd to languor, scarcely curl

The Green-Sea wave, whose waters gleam
Limpid, as if her mines of pearl

Were melted all to form the stream.
And her fair islets, small and bright,
With their green shores reflected there,
Look like those Peri isles of light,
That hung by spell-work in the air.

But vainly did those glories burst
On HINDA's dazzled eyes, when first
The bandage from her brow was taken,
And, pale and aw'd as those who waken

"In parts of Kerman, whatever dates are shaken from the trees by the wind they do not touch, but leave them for those who have not any, or for travellers."-Ebn Haukel.

In their dark tombs-when scowling near,
The Searchers of the Grave* appear,-
She shuddering turn'd to read her fate
In the fierce eyes that flash'd around;
And saw those towers all desolate,

That o'er her head terrific frown'd,
As if defying ev'n the smile

Of that soft heaven to gild their pile.
In vain, with mingled hope and fear,
She looks for him whose voice so dear
Had come, like music, to her ear-
Strange, mocking dream! again 'tis fled.
And oh! the shoots, the pangs of dread
That through her inmost bosom run,

When voices from without proclaim
"HAFED the Chief"-and, one by one,
The warriors shout that fearful name:
He comes-the rock resounds his tread-
How shall she dare to lift her head,
Or meet those eyes whose scorching glaro
Not YEMAN's boldest sons can bear?
In whose red beam, the Moslem tells,
Such rank and deadly lustre dwells,
As in those hellish fires that light
The mandrake's charnel leaves at night.†
How shall she bear that voice's tone,
At whose loud battle-cry alone
Whole squadrons oft in panic ran,
Scatter'd like some vast caravan,

When stretch'd at evening round the well,
They hear the thirsting tiger's yell!

Breathless she stands, with eyes cast down,
Shrinking beneath the fiery frown,

*The two terrible angels, Monkir and Nakir; who are called "the Searchers of the Grave" in the "Creed of the orthodox Mahometans" given by Ockley, vol. 2.

+"The Arabiane call the mandrake the Devil's candle,' on account of its shining appearance in the night."-Richard on.

Which, fancy tells her, from that brow
Is flashing o'er her fiercely now:
And shuddering as she hears the tread
Of his retiring warrior band.-
Never was pause so full of dread;
Till HAFED with a trembling hand
Took hers, and leaning o'er her, said,
"HINDA!"-that word was all he spoke,
And 'twas enough-the shriek that broke
From her full bosom, told the rest.-
Panting with terror, joy, surprise,
The maid but lifts her wondering eyes,
To hide them on her Gheber's breast!
'Tis he, 'tis he-the man of blood,
The fellest of the Fire-fiend's brood,
HAFED, the demon of the fight,

Whose voice unnerves, whose glances blight,-
Is her own loved Gheber, mild
And glorious as when first he smil'd
In her lone tower, and left such beams
Of his pure eye to light her dreams,
That she believ'd her bower had given
Rest to some wanderer from heaven!

Moments there are, and this was one,
Snatch'd like a minute's gleam of sun
Amid the black Simoom's eclipse-

Or, like those verdant spots that bloom
Around the crater's burning lips,
Sweetening the very edge of doom!
The past-the future-all that Fate

Can bring of dark or desperate

Around such hours, but makes them cast

Intenser radiance while they last!

Ev'n he, this youth-though dimm'd and gone

Each star of Hope that cheer'd him on-
His glories lost-his cause betray'd-
IRAN, his dear-lov'd country, made

« ПретходнаНастави »