So will he speak, perhaps, while men applaud; The iron plates rang sharp, but turned the Then were the chiefs of Iran shamed through me.''

spear.

And Rustum seized his club, which none but he And then he turned, and sternly spake Could wield; an unlopped trunk it was, and aloud:huge,

"Rise! wherefore dost thou vainly question Still rough-like those which men in treeless

thus

Of Rustum? I am here, whom thou hast called By challenge forth; make good thy vaunt, or yield!

plains

410

To build them boats fish from the flooded rivers,
Hyphasis or Hydaspes, when, high up
By their dark springs, the wind in winter-time
Hath made in Himalayan forests wrack,
And strewn the channels with torn boughs-so
huge

Is it with Rustum only thou wouldst fight? Rash boy, men look on Rustum's face and flee! For well I know, that did great Rustum stand Before thy face this day, and were re- The club which Rustum lifted now, and struck vealed, 371 One stroke; but again Sohrab sprang aside, Lithe as the glancing snake, and the club came Thundering to earth, and leapt from Rustum's hand.

There would be then no talk of fighting more.
But being what I am, I tell thee this-
Do thou record it in thine inmost soul:
Either thou shalt renounce thy vaunt and yield,
Or else thy bones shall strew this sand, till
winds

Bleach them, or Oxus with his summer-floods, And now might Sohrab have unsheathed his Oxus in summer wash them all away.' sword,

He spoke; and Sohrab answered, on his And pierced the mighty Rustum while he lay feet:Dizzy, and on his knees, and choked with sand; "Art thou so fierce? Thou wilt not fright me But he looked on, and smiled, nor bared his so!

380

sword,

But courteously drew back, and spoke, and said:

'Thou strik'st too hard! that club of thine will float

I am no girl, to be made pale by words.
Yet this thou hast said well, did Rustum stand
Here on this field, there were no fighting then.
But Rustum is far hence, and we stand here.
Begin! thou art more vast, more dread than I, Upon the summer-floods, and not my bones.
And thou art proved, I know, and I am young-But rise, and be not wroth! not wroth am I;
But yet success sways with the breath of

Heaven.

And though thou thinkest that thou knowest

sure

No, when I see thee, wrath forsakes my soul.
Thou say 'st, thou art not Rustum; be it so! 431
Who art thou then, that canst so touch my soul?
Boy as I am, I have seen battles too-
Have waded foremost in their bloody waves,
And heard their hollow roar of dying men;
But never was my heart thus touched before.
Are they from Heaven, these softenings of the
heart?

Thy victory, yet thou canst not surely know,
For we are all, like swimmers in the sea, 390
Poised on the top of a huge wave of fate,
Which hangs uncertain to which side to fall.
And whether it will heave us up to land,
Or whether it will roll us out to sea,
Back out to sea, to the deep waves of death,
We know not, and no search will make us know;
Only the event will teach us in its hour."
He spoke, and Rustum answered not, but And thou shalt talk to me of Rustum's deeds.
hurled

O thou old warrior, let us yield to Heaven!
Come, plant we here in earth our angry spears,
And make a truce, and sit upon this sand, 440
And pledge each other in red wine, like friends,

There are enough foes in the Persian host,

His spear; down from the shoulder, down it Whom I may meet, and strike, and feel no

came,

pang;

But oh, let there be peace 'twixt thee and me!"

As on some partridge in the corn a hawk, 400 Champions enough Afrasiab has, whom thou
That long has towered in the airy clouds, Mayst fight; fight them, when they confront
Drops like a plummet; Sohrab saw it come,
thy spear!
And sprang aside, quick as a flash; the spear
Hissed, and went quivering down into the sand,
Which, it sent flying wide;-then Sohrab threw
In turn, and full struck Rustum's shield; sharp
rang,

The word originally meant only "walked"; with the change in meaning grew up the hyperbole of "seas of blood," "bloody waves," etc.

He ceased, but while he spake, Rustum had And labouring breath; first Rustum struck the risen,

450

shield

Which Sohrab held stiff out; the steel-spiked spear

And stood erect, trembling with rage; his club
He left to lie, but had regained his spear,
Whose fiery point now in his mailed right- Rent the tough plates, but failed to reach the
skin,

hand

Blazed bright and baleful, like that autumn- And Rustum plucked it back with angry groan.
star,
Then Sohrab with his sword smote Rustum's
helm,

The baleful sign of fevers; dust had soiled
His stately crest, and dimmed his glittering Nor clove its steel quite through; but all the

His breast heaved, his lips foamed, and twice He shore away, and that proud horsehair plume, his voice Never till now defiled, sank to the dust; Was choked with rage; at last these words And Rustum bowed his head; but then the broke way:gloom

"Girl! nimble with thy feet, not with thy Grew blacker, thunder rumbled in the air, 500
hands!
And lightnings rent the cloud; and Ruksh, the

Curled minion, dancer, coiner of sweet words!
Fight, let me hear thy hateful voice no more!
Thou art not in Afrasiab's gardens now 460
With Tartar girls, with whom thou art wont to
dance;

But on the Oxus-sands, and in the dance

horse,

Who stood at hand, uttered a dreadful ery;-
No horse's cry was that, most like the roar
Of some pained desert-lion, who all day
Hath trailed the hunter's javelin in his side,
And comes at night to die upon the sand.
The two hosts heard that cry, and quaked for
fear,

And Oxus curdled as it crossed his stream.
But Sohrab heard, and quailed not, but rushed

Of battle, and with me, who make no play
Of war; I fight it out, and hand to hand.
Speak not to me of truce, and pledge, and wine!
Remember all thy valour; try thy feints
And cunning! all the pity I had is gone;
Because thou hast shamed me before both the And struck again; and again Rustum bowed 510
hosts

With thy light skipping tricks, and thy girl's wiles.''

469 He spoke, and Sohrab kindled at his taunts, And he too drew his sword; at once they rushed

Together, as two eagles on one prey

on,

His head; but this time all the blade, like glass,
Sprang in a thousand shivers on the helm,
And in the hand the hilt remained alone.
Then Rustum raised his head; his dreadful
eyes

Glared, and he shook on high his menacing
spear,

Come rushing down together from the clouds, And shouted: Rustum!-Sohrab heard that One from the east, one from the west; their

shields

Dashed with a clang together, and a din
Rose, such as that the sinewy wood-cutters
Make often in the forest's heart at morn,
Of hewing axes, crashing trees—such blows
Rustum and Sohrab on each other hailed.

shout,

And you would say that sun and stars took He reeled, and staggering back, sank to the part

480

In that unnatural conflict; for a cloud
Grew suddenly in Heaven, and darked the sun
Over the fighters' heads; and a wind rose
Under their feet, and moaning swept the plain,
And in a sandy whirlwind wrapped the pair.
In gloom they twain were wrapped, and they
alone;

ground,

And then the gloom dispersed, and the wind
fell,

And the bright sun broke forth, and melted all
The cloud; and the two armies saw the pair-
Saw Rustum standing, safe upon his feet,
And Sohrab, wounded, on the bloody sand.

Then, with a bitter smile, Rustum began:— For both the on-looking hosts on either hand "Sohrab, thou thoughtest in thy mind to kill Stood in broad daylight, and the sky was pure, A Persian lord this day, and strip his corpse, And the sun sparkled on the Oxus stream. And bear thy trophies to Afrasiab's tent. But in the gloom they fought, with bloodshot Or else that the great Rustum would come down 490 Himself to fight, and that thy wiles would move

eyes

530

His heart to take a gift, and let thee go.
And then that all the Tartar host would praise
Thy courage or thy craft, and spread thy fame,
To glad thy father in his weak old age.
Fool, thou art slain, and by an unknown man!
Dearer to the red jackals shalt thou be
Than to thy friends, and to thy father old.''
And, with а fearless mien, Sohrab re.
plied:-
540
“Unknown thou art; yet thy fierce vaunt is
vain.

And pierce him like a stab, and make him leap
To arms, and cry for vengeance upon thee.
Fierce man, bethink thee, for an only son!
What will that grief, what will that vengeance
be?

590

Oh, could I live, till I that grief had seen!
Yet him I pity not so much, but her,
My mother, who in Ader-baijan dwells
With that old king, her father, who grows gray
With age, and rules over the valiant Koords.
Her most I pity, who no more will see

Thou dost not slay me, proud and boastful Sohrab returning from the Tartar camp,
man!

No! Rustum slays me, and this filial heart.
For were I matched with ten such men as thee,
And I were that which till to-day I was,
They should be lying here, I standing there.
But that belovèd name unnerved my arm-
That name, and something, I confess, in thee,
Which troubles all my heart, and made my
shield

550

With spoils and honour, when the war is done.
But a dark rumour will be bruited up,
From tribe to tribe, until it reach her ear;
And then will that defenceless woman learn
That Sohrab will rejoice her sight no more,
But that in battle with a nameless foe,
By the far-distant Oxus, he is slain."
He spoke; and as he ceased, he wept aloud,
Thinking of her he left, and his own death.

Nor
Who

thought.

did he yet believe it was his son

600

spoke, although he called back names he knew;

Fall; and thy spear transfixed an unarmed He spoke; but Rustum listened, plunged in
foe.
And now thou boastest, and insult 'st my fate.
But hear thou this, fierce man, tremble to hear
The mighty Rustum shall avenge my death!
My father, whom I seek through all the world,
He shall avenge my death, and punish thee!"
As when some hunter in the spring hath

found

A breeding eagle sitting on her nest,
Upon the craggy isle of a hill-lake,
And pierced her with an arrow as she rose,
And followed her to find her where she fell 560
Far off;-anon her mate comes winging back
From hunting, and a great way off descries
His huddling young left sole; at that, he checks
His pinion, and with short uneasy sweeps
Circles above his eyry, with loud screams
Chiding his mate back to her nest; but she
Lies dying, with the arrow in her side,
In some far stony gorge out of his ken,
A heap of fluttering feathers never more
Shall the lake glass her, flying over it;
Never the black and dripping precipices
Echo her stormy scream as she sails by-
As that poor bird flies home, nor knows his loss,
So Rustum knew not his own loss, but stood
Over his dying son, and knew him not.

570

|

For he had had sure tidings that the babe,
Which was in Ader-baijan born to him,
Had been a puny girl, no boy at all—

So that sad mother sent him word, for fear 610
Rustum should seek the boy, to train in arms.
And so he deemed that either Sohrab took,
By a false boast, the style of Rustum's son;
Or that men gave it him, to swell his fame.
So deemed he; yet he listened, plunged in
thought.

And his soul set to grief, as the vast tide
Of the bright rocking Ocean sets to shore
At the full moon; tears gathered in his eyes;
For he remembered his own early youth,
And all its bounding rapture; as, at dawn, 620
The shepherd from his mountain-lodge descries
A far, bright city, smitten by the sun,
Through many rolling clouds-so Rustum saw
His youth; saw Sohrab's mother, in her bloom;
And that old king, her father, who loved well
His wandering guest, and gave him his fair
child

With joy; and all the pleasant life they led,
They three, in that long-distant summer-time—
The castle, and the dewy woods, and hunt
And hound, and morn on those delightful hills
In Ader-baijan. And he saw that Youth, 631
Of age and looks to be his own dear son,
Piteous and lovely, lying on the sand,
Like some rich hyacinth which by the scythe
Of an unskilful gardener has been cut,
Mowing the garden grass-plots near its bed,

And lies, a fragrant tower of purple bloom,
On the mown, dying grass-so Sohrab lay,
Lovely in death, upon the common sand.
And Rustum gazed on him with grief, and
said:-
640

"O Sohrab, thou indeed art such a son

Him that kind creature found, and reared, and
loved-

Then Rustum took it for his glorious sign.
And Sohrab bared that image on his arm,
And himself scanned it long with mournful
eyes,

Whom Rustum, wert thou his, might well have And then he touched it with his hand and

:

O boy-thy father!—and his voice choked there.
And then a dark cloud passed before his eyes,
And his head swam, and he sank down to earth.
But Sohrab crawled to where he lay, and cast
His arms about his neck, and kissed his lips,
And with fond faltering fingers stroked his
cheeks,

And he desired to draw forth the steel.
And let the blood flow free, and so to die—
But first he would convince his stubborn foe;
And, rising sternly on one arm, he said:-
Trying to call him back to life; and life
"Man, who art thou who dost deny my Came back to Rustum, and he oped his eyes,
And they stood wide with horror; and he seized
In both his hands the dust which lay around,

words?

Truth sits upon the lips of dying men,

And falsehood, while I lived, was far from And threw it on his head, and smirched his mine.

I tell thee, pricked upon this arm I bear
That seal which Rustum to my mother gave,

hair,

701

His hair, and face, and beard, and glittering arms;

That she might prick it on the babe she bore." And strong convulsive groanings shook his He spoke; and all the blood left Rustum's cheeks,

breast,

661 And his sobs choked him; and he clutched his

And his knees tottered, and he smote his hand
Against his breast, his heavy mailèd hand,
That the hard iron corslet clanked aloud;
And to his heart he pressed the other hand,
And in a hollow voice he spake, and said:—
"Sohrab, that were a proof which could not
lie!

sword,

To draw it, and for ever let life out.

But Sohrab saw his thought, and held his hands,

And with a soothing voice he spake, and said:

"Father, forbear! for I but meet to-day

If thou show this, then art thou Rustum's | The doom which at my birth was written down In Heaven, and thou art Heaven's unconscious hand.

son.

671

Then, with weak hasty fingers, Sohrab loosed His belt, and near the shoulder bared his arm, And showed a sign in faint vermilion points Pricked; as a cunning workman, in Pekin, Pricks with vermilion some clear porcelain

710

Surely my heart cried out that it was thou,
When first I saw thee; and thy heart spoke too,
I know it! but fate trod those promptings
down

Under its iron heel; fate, fate engaged
The strife, and hurled me on my father's spear.
But let us speak no more of this! I find
My father; let me feel that I have found!
Come, sit beside me on this sand, and take
My head betwixt thy hands, and kiss my cheeks,
And wash them with thy tears, and say: My
son!

So delicately pricked the sign appeared
On Sohrab's arm, the sign of Rustum's seal.
It was that griffin, which of old reared Zal,
Rustum's great father, whom they left to die,
A helpless babe, among the mountain-rocks; 681 | And swift; for like the lightning to this field

720

Quick! quick! for numbered are my sands of life,

I came, and like the wind I go away-
Sudden, and swift, and like a passing wind.
But it was writ in Heaven that this should be."
So said he, and his voice released the heart
Of Rustum, and his tears broke forth; he cast
His arms round his son's neck, and wept aloud,
And kissed him. And awe fell on both the
hosts,

When they saw Rustum's grief; and Ruksh, the
horse,
730
With his head bowing to the ground and mane
Sweeping the dust, came near, and in mute woe
First to the one, then to the other moved
His head, as if inquiring what their grief
Might mean; and from his dark, compassionate
eyes,

The big warm tears rolled down, and caked the
sand.*

They followed me, my hope, my fame, my star. But Rustum chid him with stern voice, and Let them all cross the Oxus back in peace.

said:

"Ruksh, now thou grievest; but, O Ruksh, thy feet

Should first have rotted on their nimble joints,
Or ere they brought thy master to this field!"
But Sohrab looked upon the horse and
said:-
741
How often, in past

"Is this, then, Ruksh?
days,
My mother told me of thee, thou brave steed,
My terrible father's terrible horse! and said,
That I should one day find thy lord and thee.
Come, let me lay my hand upon thy mane!
O Ruksh, thou art more fortunate than I;
For thou hast gone where I shall never go,
And snuffed the breezes of my father's home,
And thou hast trod the sands of Seistan,
And seen the River of Helmund, and the Lake
Of Zirrah; and the aged Zal himself

But me thou must bear hence, not send with
them,

But carry me with thee to Seistan,
And place me on a bed, and mourn for me,
Thou, and the snow-haired Zal, and all thy
friends.

790

And thou must lay me in that lovely earth,
And heap a stately mound above my bones,
And plant a far-seen pillar over all.
That so the passing horseman on the waste
May see my tomb a great way off, and ery:
Sohrab, the mighty Rustum's son, lies there,
Whom his great father did in ignorance kill!
And I be not forgotten in my grave."

And, with a mournful voice, Rustum re-
plied:-

750Fear not! as thou hast said, Sohrab, my son,
So shall it be; for I will burn my tents,
And quit the host, and bear thee hence with me,

Has often stroked thy neck, and given thee | And carry thee away to Seistan,

food,

802

And place thee on a bed, and mourn for thee,
With the snow-headed Zal, and all my friends,
And I will lay thee in that lovely earth,
And heap a stately mound above thy bones,
And plant a far-seen pillar over all,
And men shall not forget thee in thy grave.
And I will spare thy host; yea, let them go!
Let them all cross the Oxus back in peace!
What should I do with slaying any more?
For would that all that I have ever slain
Might be once more alive; my bitterest foes, 810
And they who were called champions in their
time,

And through whose death I won that fame I
have-

And I were nothing but a common man,
A poor, mean soldier, and without renown,
So thou mightest live too, my son, my son!

* Compare the action of the horse of Achilles. Or rather would that I, even I myself,

Iliad, xix, end.