The Well

Shame, conjuring Heaven, whose fell delight
Is to bury each morn a fair moon from sight !
Who givest for prey to the wolf the gazelle
That browses at ease in life’s flowery dell.
When Yusuf in charge to those wolves was given,
“ See, they harry a lamb,” cried pitiless Heaven.
While yet in the ken of their father’s eyes,
Each strove, as in love, to be nearest the prize.
One raised him high on his back, and round
His waist another his strong arm wound.
But the touch of each hand was more rough and rude,
When they came to the desert of solitude.
From the shoulder of pity the burden they threw,
Where the flint-stones were hard, and the sharp thorns grew.
Through the pitiless briars he walked unshod,
His rosy feet rent by the spines where he trod,
As he walked barefooted by thistle and thorn,
The silver skin of his hand was torn.
The tender soles of his young feet bled,
And, soft as the rose, like the rose were red.
If he lingered a moment behind the band,
One smote his fair cheek with a ruthless hand.
May the vengeful sword on the fierce hand fall
Which struck the fair face which is loved of all !
If he walked before them they rained their blows
On his neck like a rebel’s till red wheals rose.
May each hand be bound to the neck with a chain,
That gave his soft neck that unmerited pain. !
If he walked abreast in his trembling fear,
Hard hands on each side of him pulled his ear.
May the savage have naught but his fingers to clasp,
Who could hold that ear in his merciless grasp !
When he clung to one’s skirt with a loud lament,
He was flung aside, and his collar rent.
When he lay at their feet in his utter dread.
They laughed as their cruel feet pressed on his head.
When his pale lips uttered a bitter cry,
With jeer and reproach came the harsh reply.
In the depth of despair with wild words he complained,
And the rose of his cheek like the tulip was stained.
Now in the dust, now in blood the hoy lay,
And heart-broken, cried in his utter dismay :
“Where art thou, my father, where art thou ? Why
Wilt thou heedlessly leave me to suffer and die ?
See the son of her whom thou lovedst so well;
See those who ’gainst wisdom and duty rebel.
What their hearts have devised for thy heart’s love, see,
And how they repay obligation to thee.
From the ground of thy soul a young rosebud grew,
And thy tender love fed it and nursed it with dew.
By anguish and thirst it lies withered and dried,
Its life is departing, its bright hues have died.
In a garden kept with each loving device,
Was planted a scion of Paradise.
By the blast of oppression the plant is o’erthrown,
By the thorn and the thistle its height overgrown.
The moon whose fair light for thy guidance was shed,
Which the dark gloom of fate ever failed to o'erspread,
Has suffered such hardship from Heaven on high,
That it prays the new moon its faint light to supply.”
Onward thus for a league they went,
He longing for peace, they on slaughter bent.
He was all tenderness, they were stem ;
His prayers were warm, their words cold in return.
They came at last to a well where they
Bested awhile from the toil of the way.
Like the grave of a tyrant, deep, dark as night,
It struck with horror the reason’s sight.
Like the mouth of a dragon its black jaws gaped —
A terrible portal whence none escaped.
A tyran t’s dungeon was not so deep,
Where deadly snakes o’er the prisoner creep.
The depth was too deep for the reach of sense,
And wide was its horror’s circumference.
Dire was the centre, the circle despair :
The spring was bitter and poison the air.
For living creature to draw a breath
In that terrible pit were his instant death.
No depths could be found better suited to quell
That rosy-cheeked moon than that horrible well.
Once more he endeavoured to move them ; again
Sought to touch their hard hearts in so soothing a strain
That, could it have heard his sweet pleading, a stone
But the heart of each brother grew harder still,
More firm the resolve of each murderous will.
How shall I tell it ? My heart grows weak ;
Of the deed they accomplished I scarce can speak.
On that delicate arm for which, soft and fair.
The silk of heaven were too rough to wear,
They firmly fastened a goat-hair cord
Whose every hair seemed a piercing sword.
A woollen rope round his delicate waist
Fine as a hair was securely braced.
'-His coat from his beautiful shoulders had slipped,
i And he stood like a rose when her leaves are stripped.
So they rent the robe of their honour away,
And clothed them with shame till the Judgment Day.
They lowered him down in the deep dark well.
And sunk in the water half-way he fell.
Down into darkness by Fate was hurled
The sun that illumined the whole wide world.
But a stone jutting out from the rocky side,
Above the water a seat supplied.
That humble stone, as high Fate ordained,
A value greater than rubies gained.
The bitter water beneath his feet
At the sight of that ruby, his lip, grew sweet.
The well shone with the splendour his fair cheek shed,
Like the face of the earth with the moon o’erhead.
The fragrance that breathed from his flowing hair
Purged of its poison the deadly air,
And snakes and venomous creatures fled
From his radiant face and the light it spread.
A shirt in an amulet round him slung,
Which had saved his grandsire from the flame, was hung ;
To Abraham sent by Eizvan, when the flame
Like a garden of roses about him became.
From the Sidra-tree Gabriel came in haste,
And the heavenly gift from his arm embraced.
The precious sliirt from within he drew,
And o’er that pure body the garment threw.
Then spoke the angel : “Lone mourner, see,
The Eternal Himself sends a message to thee :
‘‘The day is nigh when I bring that band,
Who in false-hearted malice thy death have planned,
Before thy presence to bend and bow
With hearts deeper wounded than thine is now.
Then recall to thy brothers their crime and shame,
But keep from their knowledge thy story and name.’ ”
The words of Gabriel cheered his heart,
And bade his sorrow and pain depart.
In calm content on the jutting stone
He sate like a king on his royal throne,
While the faithful angel, if grief should stir
The heart of the boy, was a minister.