And as the road o’ertopped a sunburnt hill

  He saw before him the great city lie,

  The glimmering lights about grey towers and high,

  Rising from gardens dark; the guarded wall,

  The gleaming dykes, the great sea, bounding all.

  As one who at the trumpet’s sound casts by

  The tender thought of rest, of wife and child,

  And fear of death for hope of victory,

  So at that sight those sweet vague hopes and wild

  Did he cast by, and in the darkness smiled

  For pleasure of the beauty of the earth,

  For foretaste of the coming days of mirth.

  SURELY if any man was blithe and glad

  Within that city, when the morrow’s sun

  Beheld it, he at least the first place had,

  And midst of glad folk was the happiest one —

  So much to do, that was not e’en begun,

  So much to hope for, that he could not see,

  So much to win, so many things to be!

  Yea, so much, he could turn himself to nought

  For many days, but wandering aimlessly

  Wherever men together might be brought,

  That he once more their daily life might see,

  That to his new-born life new seemed to be,

  And staving thought off, he awhile must shrink

  From touching that sweet cup he had to drink.

  Yet when this mood was past by, what was this,

  That in the draught he was about to drain,

  That new victorious life, all seemed amiss?

  If, thinking of the pleasure and the pain,

  Men find in struggling life, he turned to gain

  The godlike joy he hoped to find therein,

  All turned to cloud, and nought seemed left to win.

  Love moved him not, yea, something in his heart

  There was that made him shudder at its name;

  He could not rouse himself to take his part

  In ruling worlds and winning praise and blame;

  And if vague hope of glory o’er him came,

  Why should he cast himself against the spears

  To make vain stories for the unpitying years?

  The thing that men call knowledge moved him not,

  And if he thought of the world’s varying face,

  And changing manners, then his heart waxed hot

  For thinking of his journey to that place,

  And how ‘twixt him and it was little space,

  Then back to listlessness once more he turned,

  Quenching the flame that in his sick heart burned.

  What thing was left him now, but only this,

  A life of aimless ease and luxury,

  That he must strive to think the promised bliss,

  Where hoping not for aught that was not nigh,

  Midst vain pretence he should but have to die,

  But every minute longing to confess

  That this was nought but utter weariness.

  So to the foolish image of delight

  That rich men worship, now he needs must cling

  Despite himself, and pass by day and night

  As friendless and unloved as any king;

  Till he began to doubt of everything

  Amidst that world of lies; till he began

  To think of pain as very friend of man.

  So passed the time, and though he felt the chain

  That round about his wasting life, was cast,

  He still must think the labour all in vain

  To strive to free himself while life should last,

  And so, midst all, two weary years went past,

  Nought done, save death a little brought anear,

  The hard deliverance that he needs must fear.

  At last one dawn, when all the place was still,

  He took that key, and e’en as one might gaze

  Upon the record of some little ill

  That happed in past days, now grown happy days,

  He eyed it, sighing, ‘neath the young sun’s rays;

  And silently he passed his palace through,

  Nor told himself what deed he had to do.

  He reached the stable where his steeds were kept,

  And ‘midst the delicate-limbed beasts he found

  The mule that o’er the forest grass had stepped,

  Then, having on her back the saddle bound,

  Entered the house again, and, looking round

  The darkened banquet-chamber, caught away

  What simple food the nighest to him lay.

  Then, with the hand that rich men fawned upon,

  The wicket he unlocked, and forth he led

  His beast, and mounted when the street was won,

  Wherein already folk for daily bread

  Began to labour, who now turned the head

  To whisper as the rich man passed them by

  Betwixt the frails of fresh-plucked greenery.

  He passed the wall where Firuz first he saw,

  The hostel where the dead man gave him food;

  He passed the gate and ‘gan at last to draw

  Unto the country bordering on the wood,

  And still he took no thought of bad or good,

  Or named his journey, nay, if he had met

  A face he knew, he might have turned back yet.

  But all the folk he saw were strange to him,

  And, for all heed that unto them he gave,

  Might have been nought; the reaper’s bare brown limb,

  The rich man’s train with litter and armed slave,

  The girl bare-footed in the stream’s white wave —

  Like empty shadows by his eyes they passed,

  The world was narrowed to his heart at last.

  He reached the hill, which e’en in that strange mood

  Seemed grown familiar to him, with no pain

  He found the path that pierced the tangled wood,

  And midst its dusk he gave his mule the reins

  And in no long time reached the little plain,

  And then indeed the world seemed left behind,

  And no more now he felt confused and blind.

  He cried aloud to see the white house rise

  O’er the green garden and the long white wall,

  Which erst the pale moon showed his wondering eyes,

  But on the stillness strange his voice did fall,

  For in the noon now woodland creatures all

  Were resting ‘neath the shadow of the trees,

  Patient, unvexed by any memories.

  How should he rest, who might have come too late?

  O’er the burnt plain he hurried, and laid hand

  Upon the rusted handle of the gate,

  Not touched since he himself thereby did stand,

  The warm and scented air his visage fanned,

  And on his head down rained the blossoms’ dust,

  As back the heavy grass-choked door he thrust.

  But ere upon the path grown green with weed

  ‘He set his foot, he paused a little while,

  And of her gear his patient beast he freed,

  And muttered, as he smiled a doubtful smile,

  “Behold now if my troubles make me vile,

  And I once more have will to herd with man,

  Let me get back, then, even as I can.”

  There ‘neath the tangled boughs he went apace,

  Remembering him awhile of that sad cry,

  That erst had been his welcome to that place,

  That showed him first it might be good to die,

  When he but thought of new delights anigh;

  Thereat he shuddered now, bethinking him

  In what a sea he cast himself to swim.

  But his fate lay before him, on he went,

  And through the gilded doors, now open wide,

  He passed, and found the flowery hangings rent,

  And past his feet did hissing serpents glide,

  While from the hall wherein the mourners died

  A grey wolf glared, and o’er his head the bat

  Hung, and the paddock on the hearth-stone sat.

  He loitered not amid those loathsome things,

  That in the place which erst had been so fair,

  Brought second death to fond imaginings

  Of that sweet life, he once had hoped for there;

  So with a troubled heart and full of care,

  Though still with wild hopes stirring his hot blood,

  He turned his face unto the dreary wood.

  No less the pleasance felt its evil day;

  The trellis, that had shut the forest trees

  From the fair flowers, all torn and broken lay,

  Though still the lily’s scent was on the breeze,

  And the rose clasped the broken images

  Of kings and priests, and those they once had loved,

  And in the scented bush the brown bird moved.

  But with the choking weeds the tulip fought,

  Paler and smaller than he had been erst

  The wind-flowers round the well, fair feet once sought,

  Were trodden down by feet of beasts athirst;

  The well-trained apricot its bonds had burst;

  The wild-cat in the cherry-tree anear

  Eyed the brown lynx that waited for the deer.

  A little while upon the black wood’s edge

  Did Bharam eye the ruin mournfully,

  Then turned and said, “I take it as a pledge

  That I shall not come back again to die;

  The mocking image of felicity

  Awaited those poor souls that failed herein,

  But I most surely death or life shall win.”

  Thus saying, through the wood he ‘gan to go,

  And kindlier its black loneliness did seem

  Than all the fairness ruin brought so low;

  So with good heart he reached the swift full stream,

  And there, as in an old unfinished dream,

  He stood among the mourners’ graves and saw

  Past the small boat the eddies seaward draw.

  Slowly, as one who thinks not of his deed,

  He gat into the boat, and loosed from shore,

  And ‘gan to row the ready shallop freed

  Unto the landing cut beneath the door,

  And in a little minute stood before

  Its rusty leaves with beating heart, and hand

  His wavering troubled will could scarce command.

  But almost ere he willed it, was the key

  Within the lock, and the great bolt sprang back,

  The iron door swung open heavily,

  And cold the wind rushed from a cavern black:

  Then with one look upon the woodland track,

  He stepped from out the fair light of the day,

  Casting all hope of common life away.

  For at his back the heavy door swung to,

  Before him was thick darkness palpable;

  And as he struggled further on to go,

  With dizzied head upon the ground he fell,

  And if he lived on yet, he scarce could tell,

  Amid the phantoms new born in that place

  That past his eyes ‘gan flit in endless race.

  Fair women changing into shapeless things,

  His own sad face mirrored, he knew not how,

  And heavy wingless birds, and beasts with wings,

  Strange stars, huge swirling seas, whose ebb and flow

  Now seemed too swift for thought, now dull and slow:

  Such things emmeshed his dying troubled thought,

  Until his soul to sightless sleep was brought.

  But when he woke to languid consciousness

  Too well content he was therewith at first,

  To ope his eyes, or seek what things might bless

  His soul with rest from thought of good and worst,

  And still his faint incurious ease he nursed,

  Till nigh him rang a bird’s note sweet and clear,

  And stirred in him the seeds of hope and fear.

  Withal the murmur of a quiet sea

  He heard, and mingled sounds far off and sweet,

  And o’er his head some rustling summer tree;

  Slowly thereon he gat unto his feet,

  And therewithal his sleep-dazed eyes did meet

  The westering golden splendour of the sun,

  For on that fair shore day was well-nigh done.

  Then from the flashing sea and gleaming sky

  Unto the green earth did he turn him round,

  And saw a fair land sloping lazily

  Up to a ridge of green with grey rocks crowned,

  And on those slopes did fruitful trees abound,

  And, cleaving them, came downward from the hill

  In many a tinkling fall a little rill.

  Now with his wakening senses, hunger too

  Must needs awake, parched did his dry throat feel,

  And hurrying, toward the little stream he drew,

  And by a clear and sandy pool did kneel

  And quenched his thirst, the while his hand did steal

  Unto his wallet, where he thought to find

  The bread he snatched from vain wealth left behind.

  But when within his hand he held that bread,

  Mouldy and perished as with many days,

  He wondered much that he had not been dead,

  And fell to think with measureless amaze

  By what unheard-of, unimagined ways

  Unto that lonely land he had been brought;

  Until, bewildered in the maze of thought

  That needs could lead nowhither, he arose

  And from the fairest of those fruit-hung trees

  The ripest and most luscious seeds he chose,

  And staved his hunger off awhile with these;

  Then ‘twixt their trunks got back to where the breeze

  Blew cool from off the calm sea, thinking still

  That thence his fate must come for good or ill.

  Thus, looking unto right and left, he passed

  Over the green-sward, till he reached the strand,

  And nought was ‘twixt the sea and him at last,

  Except a lessening belt of yellow sand.

  There, looking seaward, he awhile did stand,

  Until at last the great sun’s nether rim,

  Red with the sea-mist, in the sea ‘gan swim.

  But ‘gainst it now a spot did he behold,

  Nor knew if he were dazzled with the light,

  Till as the orb sank and the sea grew cold,

  Greater that grew beneath the gathering night,

  And when all red was gone, and clear and bright

  The high moon was, beneath its light he saw

  A ship unto him o’er the waters draw.

  Quickly his heart ‘gan beat at sight of it,

  But what that he could do could change his fate?

  So calmly on the turf’s edge did he sit

  The coming of that unknown keel to wait,

  That o’er the moonlit sea kept growing great,

  Until at last the dashing oars he heard,

  The creaking yard, the master’s shouted word.

  Then as the black hull ‘neath the moonlight lay,

  In the long swell, bright against side and oar,

  A little shallop therefrom took its way

  Unto the low line of the breakers hoar,

  And when its keel was firm upon the shore

  Two women stepped out thence, and ‘gan to go

  To Bharam’s place with gentle steps and slow.

  Then he arose, and wondering what should be

  The end hereof, stood gazing at them there,

  And even in that doubtful light could see

  That they were lovesome damsels young and fair;

  And as he watched their garlanded loose hair

  And dainty flutter of their rich array,

  Full many a hope about his heart ‘gan play. —

  Now they drew nigh, and one of them began

  In a sweet voice these hopeful words to say,

  “Fear not, but come with us, O happy man,

  Nor with thy doubts or questions make delay;

  For this soft night gets ready such a day,

  As shall thy heart for feeble pining blame,

  And call thy hot desire a languid shame.”

  Therewith she turned again unto the sea,

  As though she doubted not what he would do,

  And Bharam followed after silently,

  And went aboard the shallop with the two,

  As one who dreams; and as the prow cleft through

  The grey waves, sat beside them, pondering o’er

  The days grown dim that led to that strange shore.

  None spake to him, the mariners toiled on,

  Silent the damsels sat, hand joined to hand,

  Until the black sides of the ship were won;

  Then folk hauled up the boat, his feet did stand

  On the wide deck, the master gave command,

  Back went the oars, and o’er the waters wan,

  Unto the west ‘neath sail and oar she ran.

  All night they sailed, and when the dawn was nigh

  And far astern the eastern sky grew bright,

  A dark line seemed to cross the western sky

  Afar and faint, and with the growing light

  Another land began to heave in sight,

  And when the lingering twilight was all done,

  Grey cliffs they saw, made ruddy with the sun.

  But when the shadow of their well-shaved mast

  Had shortened that it no more touched the sea,

  And well-nigh all the windy waste was past

  That kept them from the land where they would be,

  They turned about a ness, and ‘neath their lee

  A sandy-beached and green-banked haven lay,

  For there a river cleft the mountains grey.

  Thither they steered with no delay, and then

  Upon the green slopes Bharam could behold

 

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