Once on a time from all the Circles
Between the steadfast Earth and rolling
The Birds, of all Note,
Plumage, and Degree,
That float in Air, and roost upon the Tree;
And they that from the Waters snatch their Meat,
And they that scour the Desert with long Feet;
Birds of all Natures, known or not to Man,
Flock'd from all Quarters into full Divan,
On no less solemn business than to
Or choose, a Sultan Khalif of their kind,
For whom, if never theirs, or lost, they pined.
The Snake had his, 'twas said; and so the
His Lion-lord: and Man had his, at least:
And that the Birds, who nearest were the Skies,
And went apparell'd in its Angel Dyes.
Should be without—under no better
Than that which lost all other in the Maw—Disperst without a Bond of Union—nay,
Or meeting to make each the other's Prey—This was the Grievance—this the solemn
On which the scatter'd Commonwealth of Wing,
From all the four Winds, flying like to
That met and blacken'd Heav'n, and
With Sound of whirring Wings and Beaks that
Down like a Torrent on the Desert dash'd:
Till by Degrees, the Hubbub and
Into some Order and Precedence fell,
And,
Proclamation made of Silence,
In special Accent, but in general
That all should understand, as seem'd him best,
The Congregation of all Wings addrest.
And first, with Heart so full as from his
Ran weeping, up rose Tajidar the Wise;
The mystic Mark upon whose Bosom
That He alone of all the Birds
HE
Had travell'd: and the Crown upon his
Had reach'd the Goal; and He stood forth and said:'O Birds, by what Authority divineI speak you know by His authentic Sign,
And Name, emblazon'd on my Breast and Bill:
Whose Counsel I assist at, and fulfil:
At His Behest I measured as he
The Spaces of the Air and Sea and Land;
I gauged the secret sources of the
From Cloud to Fish: the Shadow of my
Dream'd over sleeping Deluge:
The Blast that bore Sulayman's Throne: and
The Cloud of Birds that canopied his Head;
Whose Word I brought to Balkis: and I
The Counsel that with Asaf he prepared.
And now you want a Khalif: and I
Him, and his whereabout, and How to go:
And go alone I could, and plead your
Alone for all: but, by the eternal laws,
Yourselves by Toil and Travel of your
Must for your old Delinquency atone.
Were you indeed not blinded by the
Of Self-exile, that still grows worse and worse,
Yourselves would know that, though you see him not,
He is with you this Moment, on this Spot,
Your Lord through all Forgetfulness and Crime,
Here,
There, and Everywhere, and through all Time.
But as a Father, whom some wayward
By sinful Self-will has unreconciled,
Waits till the sullen Reprobate at
Of long Repentance should regain the Lost;
Therefore, yourselves to see as you are seen,
Yourselves must bridge the Gulf you made
By such a Search and Travel to be
Up to the mighty mountain Kaf,
Hinges the World, and round about whose
Into one Ocean mingle the Seven Seas;
In whose impenetrable
Of Light and Dark "Symurgh" his Presence holds;
Not to be reach'd, if to be reach'd at
But by a Road the stoutest might apal;
Of Travel not of Days or Months, but Years—Life-long perhaps: of Dangers,
Doubts, and
As yet unheard of:
Sweat of Blood and
Interminable—often all in vain—And, if successful, no Return again:
A Road whose very Preparation
The Traveller who yet must be prepared.
Who then this Travel to Result would
Needs both a Lion's Heart beneath the Wing,
And even more, a Spirit
Of Worldly Passion,
Malice,
Lust, and Pride:
Yea, ev'n of Worldly Wisdom, which grows
And dark, the nearer it approaches Him,
Who to the Spirit's Eye alone reveal'd,
By sacrifice of Wisdom's self unseal'd;
Without which none who reach the Place could
To look upon the Glory dwelling there.'One Night from out the swarming City
Stept holy Bajazyd, to
Alone amid the breathing Fields that
In solitary Silence leagues away,
Beneath a Moon and Stars as bright as Day.
And the Saint wondering such a Temple were,
And so lit up, and scarce one worshipper,
A voice from Heav'n amid the stillness said:'The Royal Road is not for all to tread,
Nor is the Royal Palace for the Rout,
Who, even if they reach it, are shut out.
The Blaze that from my Harem window
With fright the Rabble of the Roadside takes;
And ev'n of those that at my Portal din,
Thousands may knock for one that enters in.'Thus spoke the Tajidar: and the wing'd Crowd,
That underneath his Word in Silence bow'd,
Clapp'd Acclamation: and their Hearts and
Were kindled by the Firebrand of the Wise.
They felt their Degradation: they
The word that told them how to be retrieved,
And in that glorious Consummation
Forgot the Cost at which it must be done.'They only long'd to follow: they would
Whither he led, through Flood, or Fire, or Snow'—So cried the Multitude.
But some there
Who listen'd with a cold disdainful air,
Content with what they were, or grudging
Of Time or Travel that might all be lost;
These, one by one, came forward, and
Unwise Objection: which the wiser
Shot with direct Reproof, or subtly
With Argument and Allegory wound.
The Pheasant first would know by what
The Tajidar to that
Was raised—a Bird, but for his lofty Crest(And such the Pheasant had) like all the Rest—Who answer'd—'By no Virtue of my
Suleiman chose me, but by His alone:
Not by the Gold and Silver of my
Made mine, but the free Largess of his Eyes.
Behold the Grace of Allah comes and
As to Itself is good: and no one
Which way it turns: in that mysterious
Not he most finds who furthest travels for't.
For one may crawl upon his knees Life-long,
And yet may never reach, or all go wrong:
Another just arriving at the
He toil'd for, and—the Door shut in his Face:
Whereas Another, scarcely gone a Stride,
And suddenly—Behold he is Inside!—But though the Runner win not, he that stands,
No Thorn will turn to Roses in his Hands:
Each one must do his best and all endure,
And all endeavour, hoping but not sure.
Heav'n its own Umpire is; its Bidding do,
And Thou perchance shalt be Sulayman's too.'One day Shah Mahmud, riding with the WindA-hunting, left his Retinue behind,
And coming to a River, whose swift
Doubled back Game and Dog, and Man and Horse,
Beheld upon the Shore a little LadA-fishing, very poor, and
He was, and weeping as his Heart would break.
So the Great Sultan, for good humour's
Pull'd in his Horse a moment, and drew nigh,
And after making his Salaam, ask'd
He wept—weeping, the Sultan said, so
As he had never seen one weep before.
The Boy look'd up, and 'O Amir,' he said,'Seven of us are at home, and Father dead,
And Mother left with scarce a Bit of Bread:
And now since Sunrise have I fish'd—and see!
Caught nothing for our Supper—Woe is Me!'The Sultan lighted from his horse. 'Behold,'Said he, 'Good Fortune will not be controll'd:
And, since Today yours seems to turn from you,
Suppose we try for once what mine will do,
And we will share alike in all I win.'So the Shah took, and flung his Fortune in,
The Net; which, cast by the Great Mahmud's Hand,
A hundred glittering Fishes brought to Land.
The Lad look'd up in Wonder—Mahmud
And vaulted into Saddle.
But the
Ran after—'Nay,
Amir, but half the
Is yours by Bargain'—'Nay,
Today take all,'The Sultan cried, and shook his Bridle free—'But mind—Tomorrow All belongs to Me—'And so rode off.
Next morning at
The Sultan's Mind upon his Bargain ran,
And being somewhat in a mind for
Sent for the Lad: who, carried up to Court,
And marching into Royalty's full
With such a Catch of Fish as yesterday's,
The Sultan call'd and set him by his side,
And asking him, 'What Luck?' The Boy replied,'This is the Luck that follows every Cast,
Since o'er my Net the Sultan's Shadow pass'd.'Then came The Nightingale, from such a
Of Ecstasy that from the Rose he
Reeling as drunk, and ever did
In exquisite divisions from his
To inflame the Hearts of Men—and thus sang He—'To me alone, alone, is given the
Of Love; of whose whole Mystery possest,
When I reveal a little to the Rest,
Forthwith Creation listening
The Reins of Reason, and my Frenzy takes:
Yea, whosoever once has quaint this
He leaves unlisten'd David's Song for mine.
In vain do Men for my Divisions strive,
And die themselves making dead Lutes alive:
I hang the Stars with Meshes for Men's Souls:
The Garden underneath my Music rolls.
The long, long Morns that mourn the Rose awayI sit in silence, and on Anguish prey:
But the first Air which the New Year shall
Up to my Boughs of Message from
That in her green Harim my Bride unveils,
My Throat bursts silence and her Advent hails,
Who in her crimson Volume
The Notes of Him whose Life is lost in hers.
The Rose I love and worship now is here;
If dying, yet reviving,
Year by Year;
But that you tell of, all my Life why
In vainly searching; or, if found, not taste?'So with Division infinite and
On would the Nightingale have warbled still,
And all the World have listen'd; but a
Of sterner Import check'd the lovesick Throat.'O watering with thy melodious
Love's Garden, and who dost indeed the
Of men with thy melodious Fingers
As David's Finger Iron did of old:
Why not, like David, dedicate thy
Of Song to something better than a Flower?
Empress indeed of Beauty, so they say,
But one whose Empire hardly lasts a Day,
By Insurrection of the Morning's
That made her hurried to Decay and Death:
And while she lasts contented to be seen,
And worship, for the Garden's only Queen,
Leaving thee singing on thy Bough forlorn,
Or if she smile on Thee, perhaps in Scorn.'Like that fond Dervish waiting in the
When some World-famous Beauty went along,
Who smiling on the Antic as she pass'd—Forthwith Staff,
Bead and Scrip away he cast,
And grovelling in the Kennel, took to
Before her Door among the Dogs and Swine.
Which when she often went unheeding by,
But one day quite as heedless ask'd him—'Why?'—He told of that one Smile, which, all the
Passing, had kindled Hope within his Breast—Again she smiled and said, 'O
Poor Wretch, at whom and not on whom I smiled.'Then came the subtle Parrot in a
Greener than Greensward, and about his ThroatA Collar ran of sub-sulphurous Gold;
And in his Beak a Sugar-plum he troll'd,
That all his Words with luscious Lisping ran,
And to this Tune—'O cruel Cage, and
More iron still who did confine me there,
Who else with him whose Livery I
Ere this to his Eternal Fount had been,
And drunk what should have kept me ever-green.
But now I know the Place, and I am
To go, and all the Wise will follow Me.
Some'—and upon the Nightingale one
He leer'd—'for nothing but the Blossom sigh:
But I am for the luscious Pulp that
Where, and for which the Blossom only blows:
And which so long as the Green Tree
What better grows along Kaf's dreary Sides?
And what more needful Prophet there than
Who gives me Life to nip it from the Tree?'To whom the Tajidar—'O thou whose
In the green leaf of Paradise is drest,
But whose Neck kindles with a lower Fire—O slip the collar off of base Desire,
And stand apparell'd in Heav'n's Woof entire!
This Life that hangs so sweet about your
But, spite of all your Khizar, slips and slips,
What is it but itself the coarser
Of the True Life withinside and behind,
Which he shall never never reach
Till the gross Shell of Carcase he break through?'For what said He, that dying Hermit,
Your Prophet came to, trailing through the
His Emerald Vest, and tempted—'Come with Me,
And Live.' The Hermit answered—'Not with Thee.
Two Worlds there are, and This was thy Design,
And thou hast got it; but The Next is mine;
Whose Fount is this life's Death, and to whose
Ev'n now I find my Way without a Guide.'Then like a Sultan glittering in all
Of Jewellery, and deckt with his own Blaze,
The glorious Peacock swept into the Ring:
And, turning slowly that the glorious
Might fill all Eyes with wonder, thus said He.'Behold, the Secret Artist, making me,
With no one Colour of the skies bedeckt,
But from its Angel's Feathers did
To make up mine withal, the
Of all the Birds: though from my Place I
In Eden, when Acquaintance I did
In those blest days with that Seven-headed Snake,
And thence with him, my perfect Beauty
With these ill Feet, was thrust out and debarr'd.
Little I care for Worldly Fruit or Flower,
Would you restore me to lost Eden's Bower,
But first my Beauty making all
With reparation of these ugly Feet.''Were it,' 'twas answer'd, 'only to
To that lost Eden, better far to
In Self-abasement up thy pluméd Pride,
And ev'n with lamer feet to creep inside—But all mistaken you and all like
That long for that lost Eden as the true;
Fair as it was, still nothing but the
And Out-court of the Majesty that made.
That which I point you tow'rd, and which the KingI tell you of broods over with his Wing,
With no deciduous leaf, but with the
Of Spiritual Beauty, smells and glows:
No plot of Earthly Pleasance, but the
True Garden of the Universal Soul.'For so Creation's Master-Jewel
From that same Eden: loving which too well,
The Work before the Artist did prefer,
And in the Garden lost the Gardener.
Wherefore one Day about the Garden wentA voice that found him in his false Content,
And like a bitter Sarsar of the
Shrivell'd the Garden up, and drove him
Into the Wilderness: and so the
Of Eden closed on him till by and by.
Then from a Ruin where conceal'd he
Watching his buried Gold, and hating Day,
Hooted The Owl.—'I tell you, my
Is in the Ruin and the Dead of
Where I was born, and where I love to
All my Life long, sitting on some cold
Away from all your roistering Companies,
In some dark Corner where a Treasure lies;
That, buried by some Miser in the Dark,
Speaks up to me at Midnight like a Spark;
And o'er it like a Talisman I brood,
Companion of the Serpent and the Toad.
What need of other Sovereign, having found,
And keeping as in Prison underground,
One before whom all other Kings bow down,
And with his glittering Heel their Foreheads crown?''He that a Miser lives and Miser dies,
At the Last Day what Figure shall he rise?'A Fellow all his life lived hoarding Gold,
And, dying, hoarded left it.
And behold,
One Night his Son saw peering through the HouseA Man, with yet the semblance of a Mouse,
Watching a crevice in the Wall—and cried'My Father?'—'Yes,' the Musulman replied,'Thy Father!'—'But why watching thus?'—'For
Lest any smell my Treasure buried here.''But wherefore,
Sir, so metamousified?''Because, my Son, such is the true
Of the inner Soul by which I lived and died.''Aye,' said The Partridge, with his Foot and
Crimson with raking Rubies from the Hill,
And clattering his Spurs—'Wherewith the GroundI stab,' said he, 'for Rubies, that, when foundI swallow; which, as soon as swallow'd,
To Sparks which though my beak and eyes do burn.
Gold, as you say, is but dull Metal dead,
And hanging on the Hoarder's Soul like Lead:
But Rubies that have Blood within, and
And nourished in the Mountain Heart of Stone,
Burn with an inward Light, which they inspire,
And make their Owners Lords of their Desire.'To whom the Tajidar—'As idly
To the quick Pebble as the drowsy Gold,
As dead when sleeping in their mountain
As dangerous to Him who makes them shine:
Slavish indeed to do their Lord's Commands,
And slave-like aptest to escape his Hands,
And serve a second Master like the first,
And working all their wonders for the worst.'Never was Jewel after or
Like that Suleiman for a Signet wore:
Whereby one Ruby, weighing scarce a
Did Sea and Land and all therein constrain,
Yea, ev'n the Winds of Heav'n—made the fierce
Bear his League-wide Pavilion like a Beast,
Whither he would: yea, the Good Angel
His subject, and the lower Fiend compell'd.
Till, looking round about him in his pride,
He overtax'd the Fountain that supplied,
Praying that after him no Son of
Should ever touch his Glory.
And one
Almighty God his Jewel stole away,
And gave it to the Div, who with the
Wore also the Resemblance of the King,
And so for forty days play'd such a
As blots Sulayman's forty years with Shame.
Then The Shah-Falcon, tossing up his
Blink-hooded as it was—'Behold,' he said,'I am the chosen Comrade of the King,
And perch upon the Fist that wears the Ring;
Born, bred, and nourished, in the Royal Court,
I take the Royal Name and make the Sport.
And if strict Discipline I
And half my Life am blinded—be it so;
Because the Shah's Companion ill may
On aught save Royal Company to look.
And why am Ito leave my King, and
With all these Rabble Wings I know not where?'—'O blind indeed'—the Answer was, 'and
To any but a vulgar Mortal Mark,
And drunk with Pride of Vassalage to
Whose Humour like their Kingdom comes and goes;
All Mutability: who one Day
To give: and next Day what they gave not seize:
Like to the Fire: a dangerous Friend at best,
Which who keeps farthest from does wiseliest.
A certain Shah there was in Days
Who had a lovely Slave he doted on,
And cherish'd as the Apple of his Eye,
Clad gloriously, fed sumptuously, set high,
And never was at Ease were He not by,
Who yet, for all this Sunshine,
Day by
Was seen to wither like a Flower away.
Which, when observing, one without the
Of Favour ask'd the Favourite—'Why so
And sad?' thus sadly answer'd the poor Thing—'No Sun that rises sets until the King,
Whose Archery is famous among Men,
Aims at an Apple on my Head. and
The stricken Apple splits. and those who
Around cry "Lo! the Shah's unerring Hand!"Then He too laughing asks me "Why so
And sorrow-some? as could the Sultan fail,
Who such a master of the Bow confest,
And aiming by the Head that he loves best."'Then on a sudden swoop'd The Phoenix
As though he wore as well as gave The Crown:
And cried—'I care not,
I, to wait on Kings,
Whose crowns are but the Shadow of my Wings!''Aye,' was the Answer—'And, pray, how has sped,
On which it lighted, many a mortal Head?'A certain Sultan dying, his
In Dream beheld him, and in mortal
Began—'O mighty Shah of Shahs!
Thrice-blest'—But loud the Vision shriek'd and struck its Breast,
And 'Stab me not with empty Title!' cried—'One only Shah there is, and none beside,
Who from his Throne above for certain
Awhile some Spangle of his Glory
To Men on Earth; but calling in
Exacts a strict account of every Grain.
Sultan I lived, and held the World in scorn:
O better had I glean'd the Field of Corn!
O better had I been a Beggar born,
And for my Throne and Crown, down in the
My living Head had laid where Dead I must!
O wither'd, wither'd, wither'd, be the
Whose overcasting Shadow made me King!'Then from a Pond, where all day long he kept,
Waddled the dapper Duck demure,
At infinite Ablution, and
In keeping of his Raiment clean and nice.
And 'Sure of all the Race of Birds,' said He,'None for Religious Purity like Me,
Beyond what strictest Rituals prescribe—Methinks I am the Saint of all our Tribe,
To whom, by Miracle, the Water, thatI wash in, also makes my Praying-Mat.'To whom, more angrily than all,
The Leader, lashing that religious Pride,
That under ritual
To outer Law with inner might dispense:
For, fair as all the Feather to be seen,
Could one see through, the Maw was not so clean:
But He that made both Maw and Feather
Would take account of, seeing through and through.
A Shah returning to his Capital,
His subjects drest it forth in Festival,
Thronging with Acclamation Square and Street,
And kneeling flung before his Horse's
Jewel and Gold.
All which with scarce an
The Sultan superciliously rode by:
Till coming to the public Prison,
Who dwelt within those grisly Walls, by
Of Welcome, having neither Pearl nor Gold,
Over the wall chopt Head and Carcase roll'd,
Some almost parcht to Mummy with the Sun,
Some wet with Execution that day done.
At which grim Compliment at last the
Drew Bridle: and amid a wild
Of savage Recognition, smiling
Silver and Gold among the wretched Crew,
And so rode forward.
Whereat of his
One wondering that, while others sued in
With costly gifts, which carelessly he pass'd,
But smiled at ghastly Welcome like the last;
The Shah made answer—'All that Pearl and
Of ostentatious Welcome only told:
A little with great Clamour from the
Of hypocrites who kept at home much more.
But when those sever'd Heads and Trunks I saw—Save by strict Execution of my
They had not parted company; not
But told my Will not talk'd about, but done.'Then from a Wood was heard unseen to
The Ring-dove—'Yúsuf!
Yúsuf!
Yúsuf!
Yú-'(For thus her sorrow broke her Note in twain,
And, just where broken, took it up again)'-suf!
Yúsuf!
Yúsuf!
Yúsuf!'—But one Note,
Which still repeating, she made hoarse her throat:
Till checkt—'O You, who with your idle
Block up the Road of better Enterprise;
Sham Sorrow all, or bad as sham if true,
When once the better thing is come to do;
Beware lest wailing thus you meet his
Who all too long his Darling wept, from
You draw the very Name you hold so dear,
And which the World is somewhat tired to hear.'When Yusuf from his Father's Home was torn,
The Patriarch's Heart was utterly forlorn,
And, like a Pipe with but one stop, his
With nothing but the name of 'Yusuf' rung.
Then down from Heaven's Branches flew the
Of Heav'n and said 'God wearies of that word:
Hast thou not else to do and else to say?'So Jacob's lips were sealéd from that Day.
But one Night in a Vision, far
His darling in some alien Field he
Binding the Sheaf; and what between the
Of God's Displeasure and the bitter
Of passionate Affection, sigh'd 'Alas—'And stopp'd—But with the morning Sword of
That oped his Eyes the sterner Angel's came'For the forbidden Word not utter'd
Thy Lips was yet sequestered in that Sigh.'And the right Passion whose Excess was
Blinded the aged Eyes that wept too long.
And after these came others—arguing,
Enquiring and excusing—some one Thing,
And some another—endless to repeat,
But, in the Main,
Sloth,
Folly, or Deceit.
Their Souls were to the vulgar Figure
Of earthly Victual not of Heavenly Fast.
At last one smaller Bird, of a rare kind,
Of modest Plume and unpresumptuous Mind,
Whispered 'O Tajidar, we know
How Thou both knowest, and would'st help our Need;
For thou art wise and holy, and hast
Behind the Veil, and there The Presence seen.
But we are weak and vain, with little
Beyond our yearly Nests and daily Fare—How should we reach the Mountain? and if
How get so great a Prince to hear our Prayer?
For there, you say, dwells The Symurgh
In Glory, like Suleiman on his Throne,
And we but Pismires at his feet: can
Such puny Creatures stoop to hear, or see;
Or hearing, seeing, own
As He to Folly,
Woe, and Death, and Sin?'—To whom the Tajidar, whose Voice for
Bewildered ones to full Compassion rose'O lost so long in exile, you
The very Fount of Being whence you came,
Cannot be parted from, and, will or no,
Whether for Good or Evil must re-flow!
For look—the Shadows into which the
Of his pure Essence down by
Gradation dwindles, which at random
Through Space in Shape indefinite—one
Of his Creative Will into
Creation quickens:
We that swim the Wind,
And they the Flood below, and Man and
That walk between, from Lion to the
Pismire that creeps along Sulayman's Wall—Yea, that in which they swim, fly, walk, and crawl—However near the Fountain Light, or
Removed, yet His authentic Shadows are;
Dead Matter's Self but the dark
Exterminating Glory dwindles to.
A Mystery too fearful in the
To utter—scarcely to Thyself aloud—But when in solitary Watch and
Considered: and religiously
Lest Thou the Copy with the Type confound;
And Deity, with Deity indrown'd,—For as pure Water into purer
Incorporating shall itself
While the dull Drug lies half-resolved below,
With Him and with his Shadows is it so:
The baser Forms, to whatsoever
Subject, still vary through their lower Range:
To which the higher even shall decay,
That, letting ooze their better Part
For Things of Sense and Matter, in the
Shall merge into the Clay to which they tend.
Unlike to him, who straining through the
Of outward Being for a Life beyond,
While the gross Worldling to his Centre clings,
That draws him deeper in, exulting
To merge him in the central Soul of Things.
And shall not he pass home with other
Who, with full Knowledge, yearns for such a Rest,
Than he, who with his better self at strife,
Drags on the weary Exile call'd This Life?—One, like a child with outstretcht Arms and
Upturn'd, anticipates his Sire's Embrace;
The other crouching like a guilty
Till flogg'd to Punishment across the Grave.
And, knowing that His glory ill can
The unpurged Eye; do thou Thy Breast prepare:
And the mysterious Mirror He set there,
To temper his reflected Image in,
Clear of Distortion,
Doubleness, and Sin:
And in thy Conscience understanding this,
The Double only seems, but The One is,
Thyself to Self-annihilation
That this false Two in that true One may live.
For this I say: if, looking in thy Heart,
Thou for Self-whole mistake thy Shadow-part,
That Shadow-part indeed into The
Shall melt, but senseless of its Union:
But in that Mirror if with purged
Thy Shadow Thou for Shadow recognise,
Then shalt Thou back into thy Centre fallA conscious Ray of that eternal All.'He ceased, and for awhile Amazement
The Host, and in the Chain of Silence held:
A Mystery so awful who would dare—So glorious who would not wish—to share?
So Silence brooded on the feather'd Folk,
Till here and there a timid Murmur
From some too poor in honest Confidence,
And then from others of too much Pretence;
Whom both, as each unduly hoped or fear'd,
The Tajidar in answer check'd or cheer'd.
Some said their Hearts were good indeed to
The Way he pointed out: but they were
Of Comprehension, and scarce
Their present Evil or the promised Good:
And so, tho' willing to do all they could,
Must not they fall short, or go wholly wrong,
On such mysterious Errand, and so long?
Whom the wise Leader bid but Do their
In Hope and Faith, and leave to Him the rest,
For He who fixed the Race, and knew its
And Danger, also knew the Runner's Strength.
Shah Mahmud, absent on an Enterprise,
Ayas, the very Darling of his eyes,
At home under an Evil Eye fell sick,
Then cried the Sultan to a soldier 'Quick!
To Horse! to Horse! without a Moment's Stay,—The shortest Road with all the Speed you may,—Or, by the Lord, your Head shall pay for it!'—Off went the Soldier, plying Spur and Bit—Over the sandy Desert, over
Valley, and Mountain, and the Stream between,
Without a Moment's Stop for rest or bait,
Up to the City—to the Palace Gate—Up to the Presence-Chamber at a Stride—And Lo!
The Sultan at his Darling's side!—Then thought the Soldier—'I have done my Best,
And yet shall die for it.' The Sultan
His Thought and smiled. 'Indeed your Best you did,
The nearest Road you knew, and well you rid:
And if I knew a shorter, my
Of Knowledge does but justify thy Less.'And then, with drooping Crest and Feather,
Others, bow'd down with Penitence and Shame.
They long'd indeed to go; 'but how begin,
Mesh'd and entangled as they were in
Which often-times Repentance of past
As often broken had but knit more strong?'Whom the wise Leader bid be of good cheer,
And, conscious of the Fault, dismiss the Fear,
Nor at the very Entrance of the
Their Weapon, ev'n if broken, fling away:
Since Mercy on the broken Branch
Would blossom were but each Repentance true.
For did not God his Prophet take to Task?'Seven-times of Thee did Karun Pardon ask;
Which, hadst thou been like Me his Maker—yea,
But present at the Kneading of his
With those twain Elements of Hell and Heav'n,—One prayer had won what Thou deny'st to Seven.'For like a Child sent with a fluttering
To feel his way along a gusty
Man walks the World: again and yet
The Lamp shall be by Fits of Passion slain:
But shall not He who sent him from the
Relight the Lamp once more, and yet once more?
When the rebellious Host from Death shall
Black with Despair of Judgment,
God shall
Ages of holy Merit from the
Of Angels to make up Man's short Amount,
And bid the murmuring Angel gladly
Of that which, undiminishing his Share,
Of Bliss, shall rescue Thousands from the
Of Bankruptcy within the Prison lost.
Another Story told how in the
Good Will beyond mere Knowledge would prevail.
In Paradise the Angel Gabriel
The Lips of Allah trembling with the
Of perfect Acceptation: and he thought'Some perfect Faith such perfect Answer wrought,
But whose?'—And therewith slipping from the
Of Sidra, through the Angel-ranks he
Watching what Lip yet trembled with the
That so had hit the Mark—but found it not.
Then, in a Glance to Earth, he threaded
Mosque,
Palace,
Cell and Cottage of the
Belief—in vain; so back to Heaven
And—Allah's Lips still trembling with assent!
Then the tenacious Angel once
Threaded the Ranks of Heav'n and Earth—in vain—Till, once again return'd to Paradise,
There, looking into God's, the Angel's
Beheld the Prayer that brought that
Rising like Incense from the Lips of
Who to an Idol bowed—as best he
Under that False God worshipping the True.
And then came others whom the summons
Not wholly sick indeed, but far from sound:
Whose light inconstant Soul alternate
From Saint to Sinner, and to both untrue;
Who like a niggard Tailor, tried to
Truth's single Garment with a worldly Patch.
A dangerous Game; for, striving to
The hesitating Scale of either Lust,
That which had least within it upward flew,
And still the weightier to the Earth down drew,
And, while suspended between Rise and Fall,
Apt with a shaking Hand to forfeit all.
There was a Queen of Egypt like the
Of Night,
Full-moon-faced and Canopus-eyed,
Whom one among the meanest of her
Loved—and she knew it (for he loved aloud),
And sent for him, and said 'Thou lov'st thy Queen:
Now therefore Thou hast this to choose between:
Fly for thy Life: or for this one night
Thy Queen, and with the Sunrise lose thy Head.'He paused—he turn'd to fly—she struck him dead.'For had he truly loved his Queen,' said She,'He would at once have given his Life for me,
And Life and Wife had carried: but he lied;
And loving only Life, has justly died.'And then came one who having cleared his
With sanctimonious Sweetness in his
Thus lisp'd—'Behold I languish from the
With passionate and unrequited
Of Love for more than any mortal Bird.
Therefore have I withdrawn me from the
To pine in Solitude.
But Thou at
Hast drawn a line across the dreary Past,
And sure I am by Foretaste that the WineI long'd for, and Thou tell'st of, shall be mine.'But he was sternly checkt. 'I tell thee this:
Such Boast is no Assurance of such Bliss:
Thou canst not even fill the sail of
Unless from Him breathe that authentic
That shall lift up the Curtain that
His Lover from the Harim where He hides—And the Fulfilment of thy Vows must be,
Not from thy Love for Him, but His for Thee.'The third night after Bajazyd had died,
One saw him, in a dream, at his Bedside,
And said, 'Thou Bajazyd?
Tell me O Pyr,
How fared it there with Munkar and Nakyr?'And Bajazyd replied, 'When from the
They met me rising, and "If Allah's slave"Ask'd me, "or collar'd with the Chain of Hell?"I said "Not I but God alone can tell:
My Passion for his service were but
Ambition had not He approved the Bond:
Had He not round my neck the Collar
And told me in the Number of his own;
And that He only knew.
What signifiesA hundred Years of Prayer if none replies?"''But,' said Another, 'then shall none the
Of Acceptation on his Forehead
Ere the Grave yield them on the other
Where all is settled?' But the Chief replied—'Enough for us to know that who is
Shall enter, and with unreprovéd Feet,(Ev'n as he might upon the Waters walk)The Presence-room, and in the Presence
With such unbridled Licence as shall
To the Uninitiated to blaspheme.'Just as another Holy Spirit fled,
The Skies above him burst into a
Of Angels looking down and singing clear'Nightingale!
Nightingale! thy Rose is here!'And yet, the Door wide open to that Bliss,
As some hot Lover slights a scanty Kiss,
The Saint cried 'All I sigh'd for come to this?
I who lifelong have struggled,
Lord, to
Not of thy Angels one, but one with Thee!'Others were sure that all he said was true:
They were extremely wicked, that they knew:
And much they long'd to go at once—but some,
They said, so unexpectedly had
Leaving their Nests half-built—in bad Repair—With Children in—Themselves about to pair—'Might he not choose a better Season—nay,
Better perhaps a Year or Two's Delay,
Till all was settled, and themselves more
And strong to carry their Repentance out—And then'— 'And then, the same or like Excuse,
With harden'd Heart and Resolution
With dallying: and old Age itself
Still to shirk that which shirking we have aged:
And so with Self-delusion, till, too late,
Death upon all Repentance shuts the Gate;
Or some fierce blow compels the Way to choose,
And forced Repentance half its Virtue lose.'As of an aged Indian King they
Who, when his Empire with his Army
Under young Mahmud's Sword of Wrath, was
At sunset to the Conqueror in his Tent;
But, ere the old King's silver head could
The Ground, was lifted up—with kindly Speech,
And with so holy Mercy reassured,
That, after due Persuasion, he
His idols, sate upon Mahmud's Divan,
And took the Name and Faith of Musulman.
But when the Night fell, in his Tent
The poor old King was heard to weep and
And smite his Bosom; which, when Mahmud knew,
He went to him and said 'Lo, if Thou
Thy lost Dominion,
Thou shalt wear the
Of thrice as large a Realm.' But the dark
Still wept, and Ashes on his Forehead
And cried 'Not for my Kingdom lost I rue:
But thinking how at the Last Day, will
The Prophet with The Volume in his Hand,
And ask of me "How was't that, in thy
Of Glory,
Thou didst turn from Me and
My People; but soon as thy
Before my True Believers' Army
Like Corn before the Reaper—thou didst
His Sword who scoutedst Me." Of seed so
What profitable Harvest should be grown?'Then after cheering others who delay'd,
Not of the Road but of Themselves afraid,
The Tajidar the Troop of those address'd,
Whose uncomplying Attitude
Their Souls entangled in the old Deceit,
And hankering still after forbidden Meat— 'O ye who so long feeding on the
Forgo the Fruit, and doting on the
Of the false Dawn, are blinded to the True:
That in the Maidan of this World
The Golden Ball which, driven to the Goal,
Wins the World's Game but loses your own Soul:
Or like to Children after Bubbles
That still elude your Fingers; or, if won,
Burst in Derision at your Touch; all
Glitter without, and empty Wind within.
So as a prosperous Worldling on the
Of Death—"Behold,
I am as one," he said,"Who all my Life long have been measuring Wind,
And, dying, now leave even that behind"—This World's a Nest in which the
Is warm'd and hatcht of Vanity and Vice:
A false Bazaar whose Wares are all a lie,
Or never worth the Price at which you buy:
A many-headed Monster that,
The faster, faster is unsatisfied;
So as one, hearing a rich Fool one
To God for yet one other Blessing pray,
Bid him no longer bounteous Heaven
For Life to feed, but Death to quench, the Fire.
And what are all the Vanities and
In which the false World decks herself and
To draw Men down into her harlot Lap?
Lusts of the Flesh that Soul and Body sap,
And, melting Soul down into carnal Lust,
Ev'n that for which 'tis sacrificed disgust:
Or Lust of worldly Glory—hollow
Than the Drum beaten at the Sultan's Door,
And fluctuating with the Breath of
As the Vain Banner flapping in the Van.
And Lust of Gold—perhaps of Lusts the worst;
The mis-created Idol most
That between Man and Him who made him stands:
The Felon that with suicidal
He sweats to dig and rescue from his Grave,
And sets at large to make Himself its Slave.'For lo, to what worse than oblivion
Are some the cozening World most doted on.
Pharaoh tried Glory: and his Chariots drown'd:
Karun with all his Gold went underground:
Down toppled Nembroth with his airy Stair:
Schedad among his Roses lived—but where?'And as the World upon her victims
So She herself goes down the Way she leads.
For all her false allurements are the
The Spider from her Entrail spins, and
For Home and hunting-ground:
And by and
Darts at due Signal on the tangled Fly,
Seizes, dis-wings, and drains the Life, and
The swinging Carcase, and forthwith
Her Web: each Victim adding to the
Of poison'd Entrail to entangle more.
And so She bloats in Glory: till one
The Master of the House, passing that way,
Perceives, and with one flourish of his
Of Web and Fly and Spider clears the Room.'Behold, dropt through the Gate of Mortal Birth,
The Knightly Soul alights from Heav'n on Earth;
Begins his Race, but scarce the Saddle feels,
When a foul Imp up from the distance steals,
And, double as he will, about his
Closer and ever closer circling creeps,
Then, half-invited, on the Saddle leaps,
Clings round the Rider, and, once there, in
The strongest strives to thrust him off again.
In Childhood just peeps up the Blade of Ill,
That Youth to Lust rears,
Fury, and Self-will:
And, as Man cools to sensual Desire,
Ambition catches with as fierce a Fire;
Until Old Age sends him with one last
Of Gold, to keep it where he found—in Dust.
Life at both ends so feeble and
How should that Imp of Sin be slain or chain'd?'And woe to him who feeds the hateful
That of his Feeder makes an after-feast!
We know the Wolf: by Stratagem and
Can hunt the Tiger down: but what
Against the Plague we heedless hatch within,
Then, growing, pamper into full-blown
With the Soul's self: ev'n, as the wise man said,
Feeding the very Devil with God's own Bread;
Until the Lord his Largess
Resent, and drive us wholly from his Side?'For should the Greyhound whom a Sultan fed,
And by a jewell'd String a-hunting led,
Turned by the Way to gnaw some nasty
And snarl at Him who twitch'd the silken String,
Would not his Lord soon weary of Dispute,
And turn adrift the incorrigible Brute?'Nay, would one follow, and without a Chain,
The only Master truly worth the Pain,
One must beware lest, growing
Of even Life's more consecrated Bond,
We clog our Footsteps to the World beyond.
Like that old Arab Chieftain, who
His soul by two too Darling Things possess'd—That only Son of his: and that one
Descended from the Prophet's Thunderbolt."And I might well bestow the last," he said,"On him who brought me Word the Boy was dead."'And if so vain the glittering Fish we get,
How doubly vain to dote upon the Net,
Call'd Life, that draws them, patching up this
Tissue of Breathing out and Breathing in,
And so by husbanding each wretched
Spin out Death's very terror that we dread—For as the Raindrop from the sphere of
Dropt for a while into the Mortal
So little makes of its allotted
Back to its Heav'n itself to re-sublime,
That it but serves to saturate its
With Bitterness that will not pass away.'One day the Prophet on a River Bank,
Dipping his Lips into the Channel, drankA Draught as sweet as Honey.
Then there
One who an earthen Pitcher from the
Drew up, and drank: and after some short
Under the Shadow, rose and went his Way.
Leaving his earthen Bowl.
In which,
Thirsting, the Prophet from the River drew,
And drank from: but the Water that came
Sweet from the Stream. drank bitter from the Cup.
At which the Prophet in a still
For Answer turning up to Heav'n his Eyes,
The Vessel's Earthen Lips with Answer ran—'The Clay that I am made of once was Man,
Who dying, and resolved into the
Obliterated Earth from which he
Was for the Potter dug, and chased in
Through long Vicissitude of Bowl and Urn:
But howsoever moulded, still the
Of that first mortal Anguish would retain,
And cast, and re-cast, for a Thousand
Would turn the sweetest Water into Tears.'And after Death?—that, shirk it as we may,
Will come, and with it bring its After-Day—For ev'n as Yusuf (when his
Came up from Egypt to buy Corn, and
Before their Brother in his lofty Place,
Nor knew him, for a Veil before his Face)Struck on his Mystic Cup, which straightway
Rung out their Story to those guilty Ten:—Not to them only, but to every one;
Whatever he have said and thought and done,
Unburied with the Body shall fly up,
And gather into Heav'n's inverted Cup,
Which, stricken by God's Finger, shall tell
The Story whereby we must stand or fall.
And though we walk this World as if
There were no Judgement, or the Judge half-blind,
Beware, for He with whom we have to
Outsees the Lynx, outlives the Phoenix too—So Sultan Mahmud, coming Face to
With mightier numbers of the swarthy Race,
Vow'd that if God to him the battle gave,
God's Dervish People all the Spoil should have.
And God the Battle gave him; and the
Of a great Conquest coming to compute,
A Murmur through the Sultan's Army
Lest, ill committed to one hasty Word,
The Shah should squander on an idle
What should be theirs who earn'd it with their Blood,
Or go to fill the Coffers of the State.
So Mahmud's Soul began to hesitate:
Till looking round in Doubt from side to sideA raving Zealot in the Press he spied,
And call'd and had him brought before his Face,
And, telling, bid him arbitrate the case.
Who, having listen'd, said—'The Thing is plain:
If Thou and God should never have
To deal together, rob him of his share:
But if perchance you should—why then Beware!'So spake the Tajidar: but Fear and
Among the Birds in Whispers went about:
Great was their Need: and Succour to be
At any Risk: at any Ransom bought:
But such a Monarch—greater than
The Great Himself!
Why how should he be
To listen to them? they too have comeO So suddenly, and unprepared from
With any Gold, or Jewel, or rich
To carry with them to so great a King—Poor Creatures! with the old and carnal Blind,
Spite of all said, so thick upon the Mind,
Devising how they might
Access, as to some earthly Potentate.'Let him that with this Monarch would
Bring the Gold Dust of a long Pilgrimage:
The Ruby of a bleeding Heart, whose
Breathe more than Amber-incense as it dies;
And while in naked Beggary he
Hope for the Robe of Honour from his Hands.'And, as no gift this Sovereign
Save the mere Soul and Self of him who gives,
So let that Soul for other none
Look than the Presence of its Sovereign Lord.'And as his Hearers seem'd to
Their Scale of Glory from Mahmud the Great,
A simple Story of the Sultan
How best a subject with his Shah made bold—One night Shah Mahmud who had been of
Somewhat distemper'd with Affairs of
Stroll'd through the Streets disguised, as wont to do—And, coming to the Baths, there on the
Saw the poor Fellow who the Furnace
Sitting beside his Water-jug and Bread.
Mahmud stept in—sat down—unask'd took
And tasted of the untasted Loaf and Cup,
Saying within himself, 'Grudge but a bit,
And, by the Lord, your Head shall pay for it!'So having rested, warm'd and
Himself without a Word on either side,
At last the wayward Sultan rose to go.
And then at last his Host broke silence—'So?—Art satisfied?
Well,
Brother, any
Or Night, remember, when you come this
And want a bit of Provender—why,
Are welcome, and if not—why, welcome too.'—The Sultan was so tickled with the
Of this quaint Entertainment and of
Who offer'd it, that many a Night
Stoker and Shah forgather'd in that Vein—Till, the poor Fellow having stood the
Of true Good-fellowship,
Mahmud
One Night the Sultan that had been his Guest:
And in requital of the scanty
The Poor Man offer'd with so large a soul,
Bid him ask any Largess that he wouldA Throne—if he would have it, so he should.
The Poor Man kiss'd the Dust, and 'All,' said he,'I ask is what and where I am to be;
If but the Shah from time to time will
As now and see me in the lowly
His presence makes a palace, and my
Poor Flue more royal than another's Throne.'So said the cheery Tale: and, as they heard,
Again the Heart beneath the Feather stirr'd:
Again forgot the Danger and the
Of the long Travel in its glorious Close:—'Here truly all was Poverty,
And miserable Banishment—but
That more than Mahmud, for no more than
Who would restore them to their ancient Place,
And round their Shoulders fling his Robe of Grace.'They clapp'd their Wings, on Fire to be
And prove of what true Metal they were made,
Although defaced, and wanting the true
And Superscription of their rightful King.'The Road!
The Road!' in countless voices
The Host—'The Road! and who shall be our Guide?'And they themselves 'The Tajidar!' replied:
Yet to make doubly certain that the
Of Heav'n according with the People's Choice,
Lots should be drawn; and He on whom should
Heav'n's Hand—they swore to follow him outright.
This settled, and once more the Hubbub quell'd,
Once more Suspense the Host in Silence held,
While,
Tribe by Tribe, the Birds their fortune drew;
And Lo! upon the Tajidar it flew.
Then rising up again in wide and
Circumference of wings that mesh'd the sky'The Tajidar!
The Tajidar!' they cry—'The Tajidar!
The Tajidar!' with
Was Heav'n, and They would follow Life and Limb!
Then, once more fluttering to their Places down,
Upon his Head they set the Royal
As Khalif of their Khalif so long lost,
And Captain of his now repentant Host;
And setting him on high, and Silence call'd,
The Tajidar, in Pulpit-throne install'd,
His Voice into a Trumpet-tongue so
As all the winged Multitude should
Raised, to proclaim the Order and
Of March; which, many as it frighten'd—yea,
The Heart of Multitudes at outset broke,
Yet for due Preparation must be spoke.—A Road indeed that never Wing
Flew, nor Foot trod, nor Heart
Waterless Deserts—Waters where no Shore—Valleys comprising cloud-high Mountains:
Again their Valleys deeper than the Seas:
Whose Dust all Adders, and whose vapour Fire:
Where all once hostile Elements
To set the Soul against herself, and
Courage to Terror—Hope into Despair,
And Madness;
Terrors,
Trials, to make
Or Stop where Death to wander or delay:
Where when half dead with Famine,
Toil, and Heat,'Twas Death indeed to rest, or drink, or eat.
A Road still waxing in
As it went on: still ringing with the
And Groans of Those who had not yet prevail'd,
And bleaching with the Bones of those who fail'd:
Where, almost all withstood, perhaps to
Nothing: and, earning, never to return.—And first the
LE OF
CH: an endless Maze,
Branching into innumerable
All courting Entrance: but one right: and
Beset with Pitfall,
Gulf, and Precipice,
Where Dust is Embers,
Air a fiery Sleet,
Through which with blinded Eyes and bleeding
The Pilgrim stumbles, with Hyena's
Around, and hissing Snake, and deadly Ghoul,
Whose Prey he falls if tempted but to droop,
Or if to wander famish'd from the
For fruit that falls to ashes in the Hand,
Water that reached recedes into the Sand.
The only word is 'Forward!' Guide in sight,
After him, swerving neither left nor right,
Thyself for thine own Victual by Day,
At night thine own Self's Caravanserai.
Till suddenly, perhaps when most
And desperate, the Heart shall be
When deep in utter Darkness, by one
Of Glory from the far remote Harim,
That, with a scarcely conscious Shock of Change,
Shall light the Pilgrim toward the Mountain
Of
GE: where, if stronger and more
The Light and Air, yet harder to endure;
And if, perhaps, the Footing more secure,
Harder to keep up with a nimble Guide,
Less from lost Road than insufficient Stride—Yet tempted still by false Shows from the Track,
And by false Voices call'd aside or back,
Which echo from the Bosom, as if
The Journey's End when only just begun,
And not a Mountain Peak with Toil
But shows a top yet higher to be gain'd.
Wherefore still Forward,
Forward!
Love that
Thee first to search, by Search so
As that the Spirit shall the carnal
Burn up, and double wing Thee on the Road;
That wert thou knocking at the very
Of Heav'n, thou still would'st cry for More,
More,
More!
Till loom in sight Kaf's Mountain Peak
In Mist—uncertain yet Mountain or Cloud,
But where the Pilgrim 'gins to hear the
Of that one Sea in which the Seven subside;
And not the Seven Seas only: but the
And self-enfolded Spheres of Earth and Heav'n—Yea, the Two Worlds, that now as Pictures
Upon its Surface—but when once the
From its long Slumber 'gins to heave and sway—Under the Tempest shall be swept
With all their Phases and Phenomena:
Not senseless Matter only, but
With Life in all Varieties of Kind;
Yea, ev'n the abstract Forms that Space and
Men call, and Weal and Woe,
Virtue and Crime,
And all the several Creeds like those who
Before them,
Musulman and
Shall from the Face of Being melt away,
Cancell'd and swept as Dreams before the Day.
So hast thou seen the Astrologer
His mystic Table smooth of sand, and
Inscribe his mystic figures,
Square, and Trine,
Circle and Pentagram, and heavenly
Of Star and Planet: from whose Set and Rise,
Meeting and Difference, he prophesies;
And, having done it, with his Finger
Obliterates as never they had been.
Such is when reached the Table Land of
And Wonder: blazing with so fierce a
Of Unity that blinds while it
The Universe that to a Point congeals,
So, stunn'd with utter Revelation,
The Pilgrim, when that Double-seeming House,
Against whose Beams he long had chafed his Brows,
Crumbles and cracks before that Sea, whose
And nearer Voice now overwhelms his Ear.
Till blinded, deafen'd, madden'd, drunk with
Of all within Himself as all without,
Nay, whether a Without there be, or not,
Or a Within that doubts: and if, then what?—Ev'n so shall the bewilder'd Pilgrim
When nearest waking deepliest in Dream,
And darkest next to Dawn; and lost what
When All is found: and just when sane quite Mad—As one that having found the Key once
Returns, and Lo! he cannot find the
He stumbles over—So the Pilgrim standsA moment on the Threshold—with raised
Calls to the eternal Saki for one
Of Light from the One Essence: which when quaff'd,
He plunges headlong in: and all is
With him who never more returns to tell.
Such being then the Race and such the Goal,
Judge if you must not Body both and
With Meditation,
Watch and Fast prepare.
For he that wastes his body to a
Shall seize the Locks of Truth: and He that
Good Angels in their Ministry waylays:
And the Midnightly Watcher in the
Of his own Darkness God Almighty holds.
He that would prosper here must from him
The World, and take the Dervish Gown and Scrip:
And as he goes must gather from all
Irrelevant Ambitions,
Lusts and Prides,
Glory and Gold, and sensual Desire,
Whereof to build the fundamental
Of Self-annihilation: and cast
All old Relations and Regards of
And Country: and, the Pile with this
World platform'd, from the Fables of the
Raise it tow'rd Culmination, with the
Rags and Integuments of Creeds out-worn;
And top the giddy Summit with the
Of Reason that in dingy Smoke shall
Over the true Self-sacrifice of Soul:(For such a Prayer was his—'O God, do
With all my Wealth in the other World
My Friends: and with my Wealth in this my Foes,
Till bankrupt in thy Riches I repose!')Then, all the Pile completed of the
Of either World—at last throw on Thyself,
And with the torch of Self-negation fire;
And ever as the Flames rise high and higher,
With Cries of agonising Glory
All of that Self burn up that burn up will,
Leaving the Phoenix that no Fire can
To spring from its own Ashes kindled—nay,
Itself an inextinguishable
Of Being, now beneath Earth-ashes dark,
Transcending these, at last Itself
And with the One Eternal Essence blends.
The Moths had long been exiled from the
They worship: so to solemn Council came,
And voted One of them by Lot be
To find their Idol.
One was chosen: went.
And after a long Circuit in sheer Gloom,
Seeing, he thought, the
ER in a
Flew back at once to say so.
But the
Of Mothistan slighted so slight Belief,
And sent another Messenger, who
Up to the House, in at the window,
The Flame itself; and back the Message brings,
With yet no sign of Conflict on his wings.
Then went a Third, and spurr'd with true Desire,
Plunging at once into the sacred Fire,
Folded his Wings within, till he
One Colour and one Substance with the Flame.
He only knew the Flame who in it burn'd;
And only He could tell who ne'er to tell return'd.
After declaring what of this
Must be, that all who went should be prepared,
From his high Station ceased the Tajidar—And lo! the Terrors that, when told afar,
Seem'd but as Shadows of a Noonday Sun,
Now that the talkt-of Thing was to be done,
Lengthening into those of closing
Strode into utter Darkness: and
Like Night on the husht Sea of Feathers lay,
Late so elate—'So terrible a Track!
Endless—or, ending, never to come back!—Never to Country,
Family, or Friend!'—In sooth no easy Bow for Birds to bend!—Even while he spoke, how many Wings and
Had slunk away to distant Woods and Nests;
Others again in Preparation
What little Strength they had, and never went:
And others, after preparation due—When up the Veil of that first Valley
From whose waste Wilderness of Darkness blewA Sarsar, whether edged of Flames or Snows,
That through from Root to Tip their Feathers froze—Up went a Multitude that overheadA moment darken'd, then on all sides fled,
Dwindling the World-assembled
To less than half the Number that began.
Of those who fled not, some in Dread and
Sat without stirring: others who set
With frothy Force, or stupidly resign'd,
Before a League, flew off or fell behind.
And howsoever the more Brave and
In Courage,
Wing, or Wisdom push'd along,
Yet League by League the Road was thicklier
By the fast falling Foliage of the Dead:
Some spent with Travel over Wave and Ground;
Scorcht, frozen, dead for Drought, or drinking drown'd.
Famisht, or poison'd with the Food when found:
By Weariness, or Hunger, or
Seduced to stop or stray, become the
Of Tiger howling round or hissing Snake,
Or Crocodile that eyed them from the Lake:
Or raving Mad, or in despair Self-slain:
Or slaying one another for a Grain:—Till of the mighty Host that fledged the
Of Heav'n and Floor of Earth on leaving Home,
A Handful reach'd and scrambled up the
Of Kaf whose Feet dip in the Seven Seas;
And of the few that up his
Of Light and Darkness where The Presence hides,
But Thirty—thirty desperate draggled Things,
Half-dead, with scarce a Feather on their Wings,
Stunn'd, blinded, deafen'd with the Crash and
Of Rock and Sea collapsing in a
That struck the Sun to Cinder—fell
The Threshold of the Everlasting One,
With but enough of Life in each to cry,
On
AT which all absorb'd— And
Forth flash'd a winged Harbinger of
And Tongue of Fire, and 'Who?' and 'Whence they came?'And 'Why?' demanded.
And the
For all the Thirty answer'd him—'We
Those Fractions of the Sum of Being,
Dis-spent and foul disfigured, that once
Strike for Admission at the Treasury Door.'To whom the Angel answer'd—'Know ye
That He you seek recks little who or
Of Quantity and Kind—himself the
Of Being Universal needs no
Of all the Drops o'erflowing from his Urn,
In what Degree they issue or return?'Then cried the Spokesman, 'Be it even so:
Let us but see the Fount from which we flow,'And, seeing, lose Ourselves therein!' and,
Lo!
Before the Word was utter'd, or the
Of Fire replied, or Portal open flung.
They were within—they were before the Throne,
Before the Majesty that sat thereon,
But wrapt in so insufferable a
Of Glory as beat down their baffled Gaze.
Which, downward dropping, fell upon a
That,
Lightning-like, flash'd back on each the
Past half-forgotten Story of his Soul:
Like that which Yusuf in his Glory
His Brethren as some Writing he would
Interpreted; and at a Glance,
Their own Indenture for their Brother sold!
And so with these poor Thirty: who,
In Memory all laid bare and Conscience lasht,
By full Confession and Self-loathing
The Rags of carnal Self that round them clung;
And, their old selves self-knowledged and self-loathed,
And in the Soul's Integrity re-clothed,
Once more they ventured from the Dust to
Their Eyes—up to the Throne—into the Blaze,
And in the Centre of the Glory
Beheld the Figure of—Themselves—as
Transfigured—looking to Themselves,
The Figure on the Throne en-miracled,
Until their Eyes themselves and That
Did hesitate which Sëer was, which Seen;
They That,
That They:
Another, yet the Same:
Dividual, yet One: from whom there cameA Voice of awful Answer, scarce
From which to Aspiration whose
They scarcely knew; as when some Man
Answers aloud the Question in his Heart—'The Sun of my Perfection is a
Wherein from Seeing into Being
All who, reflecting as reflected
Themselves in Me, and Me in Them: not Me,
But all of Me that a contracted
Is comprehensive of Infinity:
Nor yet Themselves: no Selves, but of The
Fractions, from which they split and whither fall.
As Water lifted from the Deep,
Falls back in individual Drops of
Then melts into the Universal Main.
All you have been, and seen, and done, and thought,
Not You but I, have seen and been and wrought:
I was the Sin that from Myself rebell'd:
I the Remorse that tow'rd Myself compell'd:
I was the Tajidar who led the Track:
I was the little Briar that pull'd you back:
Sin and Contrition—Retribution owed,
And cancell'd—Pilgrim,
Pilgrimage, and Road,
Was but Myself toward Myself: and
Arrival but Myself at my own Door:
Who in your Fraction of Myself
Myself within the Mirror Myself
To see Myself in, and each part of
That sees himself, though drown'd, shall ever see.
Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,
And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:
Rays that have wander'd into Darkness
Return, and back into your Sun subside.'—This was the Parliament of Birds: and
The Story of the Host who went amiss,
And of the Few that better Upshot found;
Which being now recounted,
Lo, the
Of Speech fails underfoot:
But this to tell—Their Road is thine—Follow—and Fare thee well.
Bird Parliament is originally by Farid ud-Din Attar, and was translated by Edward
Gerald, [1889]
