The parrot had death simulated, as prayer. 370 Do thou to pride die; thou mayest so live for e'er. From Jesus a breath may, then, blow upon thee; Transform thee to what he was, what thou mayest be. A stone will not blossom because it is spring.

As earth make thyself; flowers around thee may cling. For years thou a stone 'st been; lay this well to heart. 373 Try patience a short time; 'twill give a fresh start.

VIII.

The Harper.

HAST heard, perchance, there was in days of good 'Umer
A minstrel talented, whose harpings moved the sphere?
The nightingales all wept in transports at his voice,
One pleasure made men's hearts a hundredfold rejoice.
His song enchanted every gathering where he went,
Applause as thunder broke forth, to his heart's content.
Like voice of Isrāfil, whose trump on judgment day,1
Will wake the dead to life, his made the saddest
Dear friend to Israfil he was, and mendicant;
His notes made plumes to sprout on hide of elephant.

gay.

Some day will Israfil attention pay to moans.
Their souls he will recall to old and putrid bones.

The prophets, likewise, all, musicians are on hearts.

Disciples hence expire with joy by fits and starts.

Our outward ears the strains hear not which thence proceed;

Those ears, in many ways, degraded are indeed.

Mankind the songs of fairies never hear at all,

They are not versed in fairies' ways, their voices small.

1 Israfil is the angel who will blow the last trump, twice. At the first, all living will die; at the second, all

the dead will rise to be judged. His voice is the most musical among all those of the angels.

5

1

'Tis true, the chants of fairies' sounds are of this world;' But

ΙΟ songs sung by men's hearts are far above them hurled.
Both men and fairies pris'ners are in earthly cage.
Both, too, are thralls of sinful ignorance's rage.

Read thou the text: "O fairy troop," in book of God.2
Consider, too: "Can ye pass out?"
ye pass out?" Who holds the rod ?

3

The inward hymn that's sung by all the hearts of saints. Commences: "O component parts of that thing NOT." 8 Now since they take their rise in this NOT, negative, They put aside the hollow phantom where we live.

Ye putrid corpses, wrapt in rank corruption's cloth, 15 Our everlasting souls are free from birth and growth. Were I but to recite one stave from their blest song, All living souls would rise out from their tombs among. Lend ear attentively; that may not distant be; As yet, however, leave's not given to tell it thee.

The saints are Israfils of this our passing time.

The spiritually dead through them live life sublime. Our souls mere corpses are; their graves, our bodies' crowds. At voice of saint do they arise, clothed in their shrouds. They say: "This voice has in it something to be feared. 20 To raise the dead, God's voice alone has power, we've heard. We were all dead, and unto earth had we returned.

The voice of God we've heard; our prisons we have spurned."

The voice of God without, also within the vail,

Can give the gift to all, it gave to Mary: "Hail!"

ye whose death was not that which attacks the flesh, At sound of the Beloved's voice ye've risen afresh.

1 Our word "fairy" is connected with the Persian " peri," used here by the poet instead of the Arabic “jinn,” whence our "genie."

2 Qur'an lv. 33.

3 That is, it would appear: Individuals created out of nothing.

That voice the Bridegroom's voice most truly was, 'tis said,

Although 'twas from the lips of His servant, Ahmed.
God said to him: "Thy tongue, thy eye, thy ear, I am;
All thy contentment, anger, thoughts, 'tis I undam.
Go on; By Me he hears, by Me he sees;' that's thee;
Thou art the head; thou holdest the place of Head's
trustee.

In ecstasy, since thou art He the Lord's who is,'1
I will be thine; for see, 'tis said: 'The Lord is his.'
Now will I say to thee: 'Thou art;' and now; 'I am.'
What I may say's as clear as is the sun in heaven.
Wherever I may shine an instant in a lamp,

25

A world of doubts I solve; on all My seal I stamp.
The darkness which the sun could never yet illume,
By magic of My breath grows bright as peacock's plume. 30
Wherever gloom may reign as undisturbed night,

When shone upon by Me, like noonday's forthwith bright."

'Twas He who taught to Adam ev'ry thing's true name,
Through Adam to mankind imparted He the same.
Take thou enlightenment from Adam or the Lord.
Draw wine as thou mayest list from jar or from the gourd.?
The distance is not great between the gourd and jar.
The gourd is not, like thee, made drunk by grape's nectar.
Draw water from the brook, or from a pitcher's mouth;
The brook is still the source whence pitcher's filled; for- 35
sooth.

Seek light as listest; whether from the moon or sun.
The moon derives her sheen from daystar's golden tun.
Imbibe what light thou canst from any twinkling star.
The Prophet said: "Stars are all my disciples." Hear! 3

1 That is: The Lord is with him who strives on the Lord's side.

2 A dried gourd, a calabash, is commonly used as a wine-decanter. An apostolic tradition.

He further said: "How happy they who see my face,1
And happy they who look on them in their own place."
He said: "Good luck to all who have the happy chance 2
To look on my disciples,-mirrors of my glance."
If thou by taper's aid proceed to light a lamp,

40 The eye that sees its light, perceives the taper's stamp.
If one lamp from another should be lighted; well!
The light received from this, has come from that one's cell.
And so, if through a thousand wicks the light should pass,
Who sees the last enjoys the gift of all the mass.
The light of this last lamp's as pure as is the whole;
No difference is there. And thus 'tis with the soul.
The light diffused by teachers in these latter days,
No other is than what was shown by earlier rays.

Our Prophet said: "The breathings of the Lord your God,3 45 In these your days of pilgrimage, on all sides prod.

Your ears and minds lend ye to all signs of the times; Perchance ye may inhale those breathings in these climes."

One breathing came and found you. Straightway it was gone.

To all who sought, new life it gave. It then had done.
Another breathing's come. Be ye not unprepared.
Ye may not let it go by. Something must be shared.
It found your souls on fire. 'Tis thence they cease to
burn.

Your souls it found all corpses. Life it made return.
Your fiery souls by it all quickly were puffed out.

50 Dead souls of yours by it began aloud to shout.
Their present calm, and this vivacity's from heaven;
Resembling not the turbulence by which man's driven.