Despair

The ancient Hraven delights to cheat
The children of earth with his vain deceit.
The heart of the lover with hope he will stay,
And then dashes the idle phantom away.
The fruit that he longed for was shown afar,
And his bosom will bear through his life a scar.
A shadow lay on the ground, and near
Zulaikha’s tent stood the Grand Yizier.
She dropped the rein of patience and prayed
For one glance at her love with her nurse’s aid.
s “ O thou whose affection through life I have tried,
I can bear this longing no longer,” she cried.
Near a cup of sweet water the thirsty lip
Is maddened with pain if it may not sip.”
The faithful nurse marked the maiden’s grief.
And looked round the wall for a way of relief.
With her crafty finger she made a rent
Like a narrow eye in the cloth of the tent.
Zulaikha looked through with an eager eye.
But heaved from her bosom a long sad sigh :
“ Ah me! that so wondrous a fate should befall!
Low in the dust lies my half-built wall.
This is not the youth of my vision, he
Whom after long troubles I hoped to see ;
Who seized the rein of my heart and stole
With his magic power my sense and soul ;
Who told me his secret and gently brought
Reason again to a mind distraught.
Alas ! the star of my hapless fate
Has left me deceived and disconsolate.
Palm-trees I planted, but thistles grow :
I sowed Love’s seed, but the harvest- is me.
I endured for my treasure long sorrows and toils,
But the guardian dragon my labour foils.
I would cull the rose for the precious scent,
But, alas ! my robe with the thorn is rent.
I am one athirst in a desert land,
Seeking for water and mocked with sand.
Dry is my tongue with unbearable thirst,
And the blood from my feverous lip would burst.
I see at a distance fair water gleam,
And I struggle and crawl to the? tempting stream,
And find no water but sand whereon
Deluding beams of the bright sun shone.
A camel am I, on the mountain, strayed,
With a mountain of hunger and toil down-weighed.
The stones are sharp and my feet are sore :
I fear to stay but can move no more.
A form I see with my blood-shot eye,
And I deem that my lost companion is nigh.
My weary steps to his side I bend :
’Tis a ravening lion and not my friend.
J am a sailor ; my vessel sank,
And I float forlorn on a single plank
On the restless wave I am tossed on high
And low in the depths of the ocean lie.
A light skiff near me comes on o’er the wave,
And my heart is glad, for it comes to save.
Nearer and nearer my rescue draws :
Ah ! ’tis a shark with his cruel jaws.
Ah me ! of unfortunate lovers none
Is helpless as I am, ah no, not one.
My heart is stolen, my lover is fled :
A. stone lies on my back and dust on my head.
O Heaven ! pity my many woes
And a door of hope, in thy mercy, unclose.
If Thou wilt not bring my dear love to my side,
Oh save me from being another’s bride.
Preserve the pure name of the hapless maid.
No polluting touch on her vesture laid.
Imade a vow to my lover, mine own,
To keep my love ever for him alone.
Ah, let not grief my poor heart consume,
Nor give to a dragon my virgin bloom.”
Thus she ceased not to sigh and complain,
And tears on her eyelashes hung like rain.
Transfix’d with anguish her young heart bled,
And low in the dust lay her beautiful head.
Then the Bird of Comfort came near, and there fell
On her ear the sweet message of Gabriel :
“ Lift thy head, sad maiden, and cease to repine,
Bor easy shall he this sore burthen of thine.
The Vizier is not he whom thou longest to gain,
But without him thy wish thou canst never attain.
Through him wilt thou look on thy loved one’s eyes,
And through him at last thou wilt win the prize.”
Zulaikha heard, and in grateful trust
Bowed down humbly her head to the dust.
Site ceased from Weeping, and strove like a bud
To drink in silence her own heart’s blood.
Fraught with deep grief was each breath that came,
But speechless she suffered woe’s scorching flame.
Her eyes, though eager, must look and wait,
Till the knot shall be loosed by the hand of Fate.