But does she dream? has Fear again Come from the gloom, low whispering near She drinks the words, "Thy Gheber's here." - Throughout the breathing world's extent And to some meaner minstrel's lay Though blest, 'mid all her ills, to think Whose smile, though met on ruin's brink, On her a maid of ARABY * A frequent image among the oriental poets. "The nightingales warbled their enchanting notes, and rent the thin veils of the rose-bud and the rose.” — JAMI. A Moslem maid — the child of him, And their fair land a wilderness! "Save him, my God!" she inly cries- "The sinner's tears, the sacrifice "And here, before thy throne, I swear 66 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 leave no traces of the flame "That wastes me now nor shall his name "Ere bless my lips, but when I pray "For his dear spirit, that away "Casting from its angelic ray "The' 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 ROOKH 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. * "Blossoms of the sorrowful Nyctanthes give a durable colour to silk.”— Remarks on the Husbandry of Bengal, p. 200. "Nilica is one of the Indian names of this flower."-SIR W. JONES. "The Persians call it Gul."-CARRERI. The leafy shores and sun-bright seas, 'Twas stillness all the winds that late Had rush'd through KERMAN's almond groves, And shaken from her bowers of date That cooling feast the traveller loves,* Now, luil'd to languor, scarcely curl The Green Sea wave, whose waters gleam Were melted all to form the stream: * "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 HAUKAL. |