XIV
XIV.
First spoke The Shah;—"Salámán, Oh my Soul,
"Oh Taper of the Banquet of my House,
"Light of the Eyes of my Prosperity,
"And making bloom the Court of Hope with Rose;
"Years Rose-bud-like my own Blood I devour’d
"Till in my hand I carried thee, my Rose;
"Oh do not tear my Garment from my Hand,
"Nor wound thy Father with a Dagger Thorn.
"Years for thy sake the Crown has worn my Brow,
"And Years my Foot been growing to the Throne
"Only for Thee—Oh spurn them not with Thine;
"Oh turn thy Face from Dalliance unwise,
"Lay not thy Heart's hand on a Minion!
"For what thy Proper Pastime? Is it not
"To mount and manage Rakhsh along the Field;
"Not, with no stouter weapon than a Love-lock,
"Idly reclining on a Silver Breast.
"Go, fly thine Arrow at the Antelope
"And Lion—let not me my Lion see
"Slain by the Arrow eyes of a Ghazal.
"Go, flash thy Steel among the Ranks of Men,
"And smite the Warriors’ Necks; not, flying them,
"Lay down thine own beneath a Woman's Foot.
"Leave off such doing in the Name of God,
"Nor bring thy Father weeping to the Ground;
"Years have I held myself aloft, and all
"For Thee—Oh Shame if thou prepare my Fall!"
Drencht in Blood fell Kai Khusrau,
He declared this Parable—
"Wretch!—There was a Branch that, waxing
"Wanton o’er the Root he drank from,
"At a Draught the Living Water
"Drain’d wherewith Himself to crown;
"Died the Root—and with it died
"The Branch—and barren was brought down!"