The King’s Vision

Many a lock in this world we see
To open whose wards we can find no key,
When the wit of the wise is of no avail,
And care and quick sight and endeavour fail.
On a sudden, touched by no master-hand,
With no device that an artist planned,
Through a cause unknown the lock open flies
And displays to the seeker the long-sought prize.
The heart of Yusuf all hope resigned
That his own device would his bonds unbind.
His hope was only in Him from whom-
Comes help to us all in the days of gloom,
And, free from self-thought in his low estate,
He was guided by God the Compassionate.
Clear to the ruler of Egypt’s sight
Appeared seven kine, as he dreamed one night ;
Each more fair than the other, all
Were healthy and handsome and fat from the stall.
After them others advancing were seen,
Equal in number, but weak and lean.
By these the former were overpowered
And, like the grass of the field, devoured.
Seven ears of corn then were seen to rise,
That might gladden the heart and delight the eyes.
Then seven thin ears, grown each from a stem,
Followed and withered and mined them.
In the early morn when the king awoke,
To each wakeful heart of his dream he spoke.
“ We cannot interpret it,” all replied ;
“ Thought and conjecture are here defied.
The dream is a riddle no wit may explain,
And wisest are they wiio from guess refrain.”
Then he who had knowledge of Yusuf flung
Aside the veil that before him hung,
And said : — “ A youth in the prison lies,
In soiling riddles supremely wise.
His wit can interpret each dream, and he
Will bring up the pearl when he dives in the sea.
Permit me to tell him this secret thing,
And the drift of thy dream from his lips will I bring.”
“ What need,” said the king, “ of permission to speak ?
What better than sight may the, blind man seek ?
And from this moment the eye of my mind,
Till I master this secret, is dark and blind.”
He ran to the prison with utmost speed,
And gave to Yusuf the dream to read.
“ Years,” he explained, “ are those ears and kine,
Whose looks of those years are the mark and sign.
The fair fat kine and the full ears well
The nature and hope of those years may telL
The meagre ears, the kine thin and weak,
Of years of dearth and misfortune speak.
In the former seven the kindly rain
Will fill the fields full with rich grass and grain,
And all the land will be glad and gay.
But seven will come, when those pass away,
To ruin the gifts of the years before;
And the hearts of men will be glad no more.
No gracious cloud the sweet rain will bring,
No blade of grass from the ground will spring.
No joy will the wealth of the rich supply,
And the poor and needy will hunger and die.
On the table of Time is no food, and Bread !
Is the cry of thousands who die unfed.”
The noble listened, and straight returned
To the court of the king with the lore he had learned.
To his master the words of Yusuf he told,
And made his glad heart like a bud unfold,
“ Bring Yusuf to me,” said the monarch, “ that I
On the truth of these words may more surely rely.
Tis sweetest to hear a dear friend repeat
With his own lips the words which, reported, are sweet;
And who is content from another to hear
The words he may draw from the lips that are dear ? ”
Again to the prison his steps he bent,
And gave Yusuf the message the king had sent :
“ Fair cypress, come from thy still retreat,
In the monarch’s garden to set thy feet.
O come, and the court of his house will shine
More fair with the rose of that cheek of thine.”
“ Shall I visit,” cried Yusuf, “ the court of a king
Who has cast me aside like a guilty thing —
Who has left me in prison long years, nor bent
One pitying glance on the innocent ?
Let him first command, if he will that I go
Forth to his court from this house of woe,
That they whom, at sight of me, wonder led
To wound with the knife their own hands till they bled,
Like the Pleiades gathered before his face,
Uplift the veil and make clear my case ;
And let them declare for what fault or crime
Ihave lain in the prison this dreary time.
Then will the secret come forth to light,
And my skirt will be proved to be pure and white.
The path of sin have I never pursued.
But traitorous thought in my heart eschewed.
To my lord I -was faithful in deed and in thought.
No perfidy planned, no dishonesty wrought.
Ere thus with ray master I stooped to deal,
Like a midnight thief I would plunder and steal.”
The message was given ; the monarch heard ;
To the women of Memphis he sent his word,
And, called from their homes by the summons, they came
To the light of his presence like moths to the flame.
When their company entered the court of their lord,
He loosened his tongue as a flaming sword:
“ How did that pure light offend, that you
The sword of dishonour against him drew ?
How could you send to a prison the boy
Whose face was your garden and spring of joy ?
Bind chains on the neck of an idol for whom
The weight of a rose were too heavy a doom ?
No chains but the links of the dew should be borne
By the rose that is bowed by the breath of the morn.”
“ O King,” they answered, “ whose splendour has lent
To the crown and the throne a new ornament,
Purity only in Yusuf we saw,
Honour and love of each holiest law.
No pearl ever lay ’neath the depth, of the sea
More pure in the shell that enfolds it than he.”
There too Zulaikha sate with the rest,
With no lie on her lip and no guile in her breast.
The schooling of love and his sweet control
Had chastened her spirit and softened her soul.
The splendour of truth from her bosom broke,
And like the true dawning of day she spoke.
The veil of her folly was flung aside,
And, “ The light of the truth is revealed,” she cried.
“ To the charge of Yusuf no sin is laid ;
I in my love for him erred and strayed.
With the spells of my love I would draw him near,
And I drove him afar when he would not hear.
To the house of woe for my woes was he sent,
And my sufferings caused his imprisonment.
When the love-grief I felt was too heavy to bear,
Of the load of my sorrows I gave him a share.
I was the tyrant, and, oh ! that he
Were repaid for the woes he has suffered through me
Each grace, each honour and bounty — all
That the king may give — were a gift too small.”
He heard Zulaikha the secret disclose ;
He smiled like a rosebud, and bloomed like a rose.
He gave command to his servants to speed,
And back from the prison bring Yusuf freed.
“ In the loveliest garden the rose should bloom,
And not be immured in a dungeon’s gloom.
In the realm of love he is lord supreme,
And no seat but a throne may that king beseem .”