What blowing daisies, fragrant grass!
An air-stirred forest, fresh and clear.
Scarce fresher is the mountain-sod
Where the tired angler lies, stretched out,
And, eased of basket and of rod,
ye Counts his day's spoil, the spotted trout.
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In the huge world, which roars hard by,
Be others happy if they can!
But in my helpless cradle I
Was breathed on by the rural Pan.3
I, on men's impious uproar hurled,
Think often, as I hear them rave,
That peace has left the upper world
And now keeps only in the grave.
Yet here is peace for ever new!
When I who watch them am away,
Still all things in this glade go through
The changes of their quiet day.
Then to their happy rest they pass!
The flowers upclose, the birds are fed,
The night comes down upon the grass,
The child sleeps warmly in his bed.
Calm soul of all things! make it mine
To feel, amid the city's jar,
That there abides a peace of thine,
Man did not make, and cannot mar.
The will to neither strive nor cry,
The power to feel with others give!
Calm, calm me more! nor let me die
Before I have begun to live.
REQUIESCAT+
Strew on her roses, roses,
And never a spray of yew! In quiet she reposes;
Ah, would that I did too!
Her mirth the world required;
She bathed it in smiles of glee.
But her heart was tired, tired,
And now they let her be.
Her life was turning, turning,
In mazes of heat and sound.
But for peace her soul was yearning,
And now peace laps her round.
Her cabined, ample spirit,
It fluttered and failed for breath.
To-night it doth inherit
The vasty hall of death.
3 Arnold was born at Laleham in the Thames valley, and grew up amid country scenes.
And the first gray of morning filled the east, And the fog rose out of the Oxus stream.5 But all the Tartar camp along the stream
Tos-ing and wakeful, and I come to thee.
For so did King Afrasiab bid me seek
Thy counsel, and to heed thee as thy son,
In Samarcand, before the army marched;
And I will tell thee what my heart desires.
Was hushed, and still the men were plunged in Thou know'st if, since from Ader-baijans first
The men of former times had crowned the top 20
With a clay fort; but that was fallen, and now
The Tartars built there Peran-Wisa's tent,
A dome of laths, and o'er it felts were spread.
And Sohrab came there, and went in, and stood
Upon the thick piled carpets in the tent,
And found the old man sleeping on his bed
Of rugs and felts, and near him lay his arms.
And Peran-Wisa heard him, though the step
Was dulled; for he slept light, an old man's
sleep;
And he rose quickly on one arm, and said:-
"Who art thou? for it is not yet clear dawn.
Speak! is there news, or any night alarm?''
But Sohrab came to the bedside, and said:-
Thou know'st me, Peran-Wisa! it is I.
The sun is not yet risen, and the foe
Sleep; but I sleep not; all night long I lie
5 Now the Amu-Daria. flowing from the plateau
of Pamir, in central Asia, to the Aral Sea.
6 A Turanian chieftain.
7 From "pile"-fur, or hair-like nap.
* Founded on a story in the Persian epic, Shah Nameh, or "Book of Kings." Rustum is the great legendary warrior-hero of Iran, or Persia.
In the Turanian, or Tartar land, which
is ruled over by Afrasiab, an enemy of the Persians, Rustum's son Sohrab has grown up without ever having seen his father; nor does the father know of the existence of his son, having been told that the child born to him was a girl. The rest of the tragic tale may be left to tell itself in the simple and digni fied language which Arnold, in professed imitation of the Homeric poems, has chosen. See Eng. Lit., p. 312.
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I came among the Tartars and bore arms,
I have still served Afrasiab well, and shown,
At my boy's years, the courage of a man.
This too thou know 'st, that while I still bear on
The conquering Tartar ensigns through the
world,
And beat the Persians back on every field,
I seek one man, one man, and one alone-
Rustum, my father; who I hoped should greet,
Should one day greet, upon some well-fought
field,
His not unworthy, not inglorious son.
So I long hoped, but him I never find.
Come then, hear now, and grant me what I ask.
Let the two armies rest to-day; but I
Will challenge forth the bravest Persian lords
To meet me, man to man; if I prevail,
Rustum will surely hear it; if I fall—
Old man, the dead need no one, claim no kin.
Dim is the rumour of a common fight,
Where host meets host, and many names are
sunk;
But of a single combat fame speaks clear.''
He spoke; and Peran-Wisa took the hand
Of the young man in his, and sighed, and
"O Sohrab, an unquiet heart is thine! Canst thou not rest among the Tartar chiefs, And share the battle's common chance with us Who love thee, but must press for ever first, In single fight incurring single risk,
To find a father thou hast never seen?
That were far best, my son, to stay with us
Unmurmuring; in our tents, while it is war,
And when 't is truce, then in Afrasiab's towns.
But, if this one desire indeed rules all,
To seek out Rustum-seek him not through fight!
Seek him in peace, and carry to his arms,
But far hence seek him, for he is not here.
O Sohrab, carry an unwounded son!
For now it is not as when I was young,
When Rustum was in front of every fray; 80
But now he keeps apart, and sits at home,
In Seistan, with Zal, his father old.
Whether that his own mighty strength at last
Feels the abhorred approaches of old age,
Or in some quarrel with the Persian King.
There go!-Thou wilt not? Yet my heart fore-
bodes
8 A northerly province of Persia.
9 Three syllables, Sc-is-tan; in eastern Persia.
Danger or death awaits thee on this field.
Fain would I know thee safe and well, though
lost
To us! fain therefore send thee hence, in peace
To seek thy father, not seek single fights 90
In vain; but who can keep the lion's cub
From ravening, and who govern Rustum's son?
Go, I will grant thee what thy heart desires."
So said he, and dropped Sohrab's hand, and
left
Who roam o'er Kipchak and the northern waste,
Kalmucks and unkempt Kuzzaks, tribes who
stray
Nearest the Pole, and wandering Kirghizzes,
Who come on shaggy ponies from Pamere;
These all filed out from camp into the plain.
And on the other side the Persians formed;-
First a light cloud of horse, Tartars they
seemed,
The Ilyats of Khorassan; and behind,
The royal troops of Persia, horse and foot,
Marshalled battalions bright in burnished steel.
But Peran-Wisa with his herald came,
Threading the Tartar squadrons to the front,
And with his staff kept back the foremost
ranks.
His bed, and the warm rugs whereon he lay;
And o'er his chilly limbs his woollen coat
He passed, and tied his sandals on his feet,
And threw a white cloak round him, and he took
In his right hand a ruler's staff, no sword;
And on his head he set his sheep-skin cap, 100
Black, glossy, curled, the fleece of Kara-Kul;10 And when Ferood, who led the Persians, saw
And raised the curtain of his tent, and called That Peran-Wisa kept the Tartars back,
His herald to his side, and went abroad.
He took his spear, and to the front he came,
The sun by this had risen, and cleared the And checked his ranks, and fixed them where
fog
From the broad Oxus and the glittering sands.
And from their tents the Tartar horsemen filed
Into the open plain; so Haman bade-
Haman, who next to Peran-Wisa ruled
The host, and still was in his lusty prime.
From their black tents, long files of horse, they
streamed;
110
As when some gray November morn the files,
In marching order spread, of long-necked cranes
Stream over Casbin and the southern slopes
Of Elburz, from the Aralian estuaries,
Or some frore11 Caspian reed-bed, southward
bound
For the warm Persian sea-board-so they streamed.
The Tartars of the Oxus, the King's guard, First, with black sheep-skin caps and with long spears;
Large men, large steeds; who from Bokhara
And the old Tartar came upon the sand Betwixt the silent hosts, and spake, and said:"Ferood, and ye, Persians and Tartars, hear!
Let there be truce between the hosts to-day.
But choose a champion from the Persian lords
To fight our champion Sohrab, man to man.
As, in the country, on a morn in June,
When the dew glistens on the pearlèd ears,
A shiver runs through the deep corn for joy—
So, when they heard what Peran-Wisa said,
A thrill through all the Tartar squadron ran
Of pride and hope for Sohrab, whom they loved.
But as a troop of pedlars, from Cabool,
Cross underneath the Indian Caucasus,
That vast sky-neighbouring mountain of milk
snow;
Crossing so high, that, as they mount, they pass Long flocks of travelling birds dead on the snow,
Choked by the air, and scarce can they themselves
Slake their parched throats with sugared mul-
berries-
In single file they move, and stop their breath,
For fear they should dislodge the o'erhanging
So the pale Persians held their breath with fear.
And to Ferood his brother chiefs came up 170
To counsel; Gudurz and Zoarrah came,
And Feraburz, who ruled the Persian host
Second, and was the uncle of the King;
These came and counselled, and then Gudurz
said:-
"Ferood, shame bids us take their challenge
Yet champion have we none to match this youth.
Haply he will forget his wrath, and fight.13 Stand forth the while, and take their challenge up."
So spake he; and Ferood stood forth and cried:
"Old man, be it agreed as thou hast said! Let Sohrab arm, and we will find a man.
He spake and Peran-Wisa turned, and strode
| Back through the opening squadrons to his tent. But through the anxious Persians Gudurz ran, And crossed the camp which lay behind, and reached,
"Go to! if Iran's chiefs are old, then I
Am oluer; if the young are weak, the King
Errs strangely; for the King, for Kai Khosroo,
Himself is young, and honours younger men,
And lets the aged moulder to their graves.
Rustum he loves no more, but loves the young-
The young may rise at Sohrab's vaunts, not I.
For what care I, though all speak Sohrab's
fame?
For would that I myself had such a son,
And not that one slight helpless girl I have—
A son so famed, so brave, to send to war,
And I to tarry with the snow-haired Zal,*
My father, whom the robber Afghans vex,
And clip his borders short, and drive his herds,
And he has none to guard his weak old age.
There would I go, and hang my armour up,
And with my great name fence that weak old
man,
And spend the goodly treasures I have got,
And rest my age, and hear of Sohrab's fame,
And leave to death the hosts of thankless
kings,
Out on the sands beyond it, Rustum's tents.
Of scarlet cloth they were, and glittering gay,
Just pitched; the high pavilion in the midst
Was Rustum's, and his men lay camped around.
And Gudurz entered Rustum's tent, and found And with these slaughterous hands draw sword
Rustum; his morning meal was done, but still
The table stood before him, charged with
food-
A side of roasted sheep, and cakes of bread,
And dark green melons; and there Rustum sate
Listless, and held a falcon on his wrist, 200
And played with it; but Gudurz came and stood
Before him; and he looked, and saw him stand,
And with a cry sprang up and dropped the bird,
And greeted Gudurz with both hands, and
said:-
"Welcome! these eyes could see no better
sight.
What news! but sit down first, and eat and drink."
He spoke and smiled; and Gudurz made re-
ply:-
"What then, O Rustum, will men say to this,
When Sohrab dares our bravest forth, and seeks
Thee most of all, and thou, whom most he seeks,
Hidest thy face? Take heed lest men should
Thou knowest better words than this to say. But Gudurz stood in the tent door, and What is one more, one less, obscure or famel, said:
"Not now! a time will come to eat and drink.
But not to-day; to-day has other needs.
The armies are drawn out, and stand at gaze;
For from the Tartars is a challenge brought 211
To pick a champion from the Persian lords
To fight their champion—and thou know'st his
Valiant or craven, young or old, to me?
Are not they mortal, am not I myself?
But who for men of nought would do great
deeds?
Come, thou shalt see how Rustum hoards his
fame!
But I will fight unknown, and in plain arms;
Let not men say of Rustum, he was matched
In single fight with any mortal man."
He spoke, and frowned; and Gudurz turned,
and ran
Back quickly through the camp in fear and joy
Fear at his wrath, but joy that Rustum came.
* Zal was born with white hair, and on that account had been cast out to die, but was fostered by a marvelous bird, the simburg, or roe, Cp. 1. 679.
But Rustum strode to his tent-door, and called
His followers in, and bade them bring his arms,
And clad himself in steel; the arms he chose
Were plain, and on his shield was no device,
Only his helm was rich, inlaid with gold,
And, from the fluted spine atop, a plume
Of horsehair waved, a scarlet horsehair plume.
So armed, he issued forth; and Ruksh, his
horse,
270
Followed him like a faithful hound at heelRuksh, whose renown was noised through all the earth,
The horse, whom Rustum on a foray once
Did in Bokhara by the river find
A colt beneath its dam, and drove him home,
And reared him; a bright bay, with lofty crest,
Dight with a saddle-cloth of broidered green
Crusted with gold, and on the ground were
worked
All beasts of chase, all beasts which hunters
know.
280
So followed, Rustum left his tents, and crossed
The camp, and to the Persian host appeared.
And all the Persians knew him, and with shouts
Hailed; but the Tartars knew not who he was.
And dear as the wet diver to the eyes
Of his pale wife who waits and weeps on shore,
By sandy Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf,
Plunging all day in the blue waves, at night,
Having made up his tale of precious pearls,
Rejoins her in their hut upon the sands-
So dear to the pale Persians Rustum came.
And Rustum to the Persian front advanced, And Sohrab armed in Haman's tent, and came. And as afield the reapers cut a swath
Down through the middle of a rich man's corn, And on each side are squares of standing corn, And in the midst a stubble, short and bare— So on each side were squares of men, with spears
Bristling, and in the midst, the open sand.
And Rustum came upon the sand, and cast
His eyes toward the Tartar tents, and saw
Sohrab come forth, and eyed him as he came.
As some rich woman, on a winter's morn,
Eyes through her silken curtains the poor
drudge
His spirited air, and wondered who he was.
For very young he seemed, tenderly reared;
Like some young cypress, tall, and dark, and.
straight,*
Which in a queen's secluded garden throws
Its slight dark shadow on the moonlit turf,
By midnight, to a bubbling fountain's sound—
So slender Sohrab seemed, so softly reared.
And a deep pity entered Rustum's soul
As he beheld him coming; and he stood, 320
And beckoned to him with his hand, and said:-
"O thou young man, the air of Heaven is
soft,
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And warm, and pleasant; but the grave is cold! Heaven's air is better than the cold dead grave. Behold me! I am vast, and clad in iron, And tried; and I have stood on many a field Of blood, and I have fought with many a foe— Never was that field lost, or that foe saved. O Sohrab, wherefore wilt thou rush on death? Be governed! quit the Tartar host, and come 330 | To Iran, and be as my son to me, And fight beneath my banner till I die! There are no youths in Iran brave as thou."
So he spake, mildly; Sohrab heard his voice, The mighty voice of Rustum, and he saw His giant figure planted on the sand, Sole, like some single tower, which a chief Hath builded on the waste in former years Against the robbers; and he saw that head, Streaked with its first gray hairs;-hope filled his soul,
And he ran forward and embraced his knees, And clasped his hand within his own, and said:
"O, by thy father's head! by thine own soul! Art thou not Rustum? speak! art thou not he?""
But Rustum eyed askance the kneeling youth, And turned away, and spake to his own soul:— "Ah me, I muse what this young fox may
False, wily, boastful, are these Tartar boys.
For if I now confess this thing he asks,
And hide it not, but say: Rustum is here!
He will not yield indeed, nor quit our foes,
But he will find some pretext not to fight,
And praise my fame, and proffer courteous gifts,
Who with numb blackened fingers makes her A belt or sword perhaps, and go his way.
fire-
And on a feast-tide, in Afrasiab's hall, In Samarcand, he will arise and cry:
At cock-crow, on a starlit winter's morn,
When the frost flowers the whitened window-'I
challenged once, when the two armies camped
And wonders how she lives, and what the Beside the Oxus, all the Persian lords
Of that poor drudge may be; so Rustum eyed
The unknown adventurous youth, who from afar
Came seeking Rustum, and defying forth
All the most valiant chiefs; long he perused
To cope with me in single fight; but they Shrank, only Rustum dared; then he and I 360 Changed gifts, and went on equal terms away.'
*For this oriental figure, compare the Rubáiyát, st. xli.
|