Fellow-Prisoners

He who is born to high fate on earth
Disperses the dark as he springs to birth.
Dor him in each thicket a lily blows,
And the musk of Tartary breathes from the rose.
He visits the field like a cloud of soft rain,
And Paradise blooms on the thirsty plain.
Like a breeze of spring through a garden he strays,
And the rose awakened her lamp displays.
If his face in a dungeon he deign to show,
Each captive there will forget his woe.
So while the prison where Yusuf lay
Smiled with his presence and all was gay,
Each prisoner, happy in heart, forgot
The bond and the chain and his dreary lot.
But if ever a captive sickened there,
The weary victim of toil and care,
Yusuf watched tenderly o’er him till he
Was made whole from the pain of his malady.
Was the soul of any oppressed with grief
Yusuf was ready to lend relief,
With a smile so sweet and a voice so kind
That the mourner was cheered and his heart resigned.
If a penniless wretch of his lot complained,
As the new moon filled or the full moon waned,
Yusuf took from the wealthy a golden key,
Believed the debtor and made him free.
If a rich man dreamed a sad dream and was caught
In the threatening whirlpool of wildered thought,
The dream was explained by those lips, and he
Was saved from the depth of the surging sea.
Two lords, once high in the ruler’s grace,
Had fallen low from their lofty place,
And, doomed in that prison long days to spend,
Had won the love of that faithful friend.
Each dreamed a dream one night, and the breast
Of each was moved with a wild unrest ;
For one had the promise of freedom, one
Was warned that the days of his life were done.
So weighed those dreams, both of hope and dread,
On the heart of each, uninterpreted.
They came to Yusuf and prayed him unfold
The secret drift of the dreams they told.
As the days came near on which he was bound to pay debts.
“Thou on the gallows,” he said, “must swing;
And thou wilt return to the court of the king.”
True were his words. To the youth restored
To his place of honour beside his lord,
Ere he turned to the court from his bonds set free,
Thus spoke Yusuf : “ Bemember me.
If fortune favour thee, time may bring
A happy hour to address the king.
Thou wilt gain thy reward if thou speak to him then
As he sits in the hall with his noblemen.
‘ A stranger,’ say, ‘ in the prison lies
Barred from the sight of thy pitying eyes.
It beseems not a heart that is righteous like thine
To suffer the guiltless in bonds to pine.’ ”
But when that servant his rank regained,
And the cup of the grace of his master drained,
For many a year his glad heart forgot
The prayer of Yusuf or heeded not.
The tree of his promise brought forth despair,
And Yusuf yet lingered a captive there.
From him who is chosen, whom God above
Deems worthy to rest in the shade of His love,
All earthly means in this world are withdrawn :
No mortal may hold His elected in pawn.
God draws him away to Himself alone,
And to none but Him may his love be shown.
To the will of another he may not bend,
But on God alone may his hope depend.
No prayer to others must he prefer,
But be God’s own servant and prisoner.