Turned to a cup, who once the sword of state Held o'er the head of slave and potentate, Is now held in the tippler's trembling hand, Or smashed upon the tavern-floor of Fate. CXVIII For this I say, Be watchful of the Cage Of chance; it opes alike to fool and sage; Spy on the moment, for to-morrow'll be, Like yesterday, an obliterated page. CXIX Yea, kiss the rosy cheeks of new-born Day, And hail eternity in every ray Forming a halo round its infant head, Illumining thy labyrinthine way. CXX But I, the thrice-imprisoned, try to troll Strains of the song of night, which fill with dole My blindness, my confinement, and my flesh-- The sordid habitation of my soul. CXXI Howbeit, my inner vision heir shall be To the increasing flames of mystery Which may illumine yet my prisons all, And crown the ever living hope of me. NOTES TO THE QUATRAINS I To open a poem with a few amatory lines, is a literary tradition among Arab poets. But Abu'l-Ala, having had no occasion to evince such tender emotions, whether real or merely academic, succeeded, as in everything else he did, in deviating from the trodden path. I find, however, in his minor Diwan, Suct uz-Zand, a slight manifestation of his youthful ardor, of which this and the succeeding quatrains, descriptive of the charms of Night, are fairly representative. III "Ahmad," Mohammed the Prophet. IV "And hear the others who with cymbals try," etc., meaning the Christians; in the preceding quatrain he referred to the Mohammedans. VII Milton, in Il Penseroso, also speaks of night as "the starred Ethiop queen"; and Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet, has these lines: "Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night As a rich jewel in an Ethiop ear." The source of inspiration is the same to all world-poets, who only differ sometimes in the jars they bring to the source. XIII The purple, white, and gray garments, symbolizing Man's dreams of power, of love, and of bliss. XIV The same idea is expressed by Omar Khayyam. Here are the first three lines of the 122nd quatrain of Heron-Allen's literal translation: "To him who understands the mysteries of the world The joy and sorrow of the world is all the same, Since the good and the bad of the world all come to an end." "Howdaj," a sort of palanquin borne by camels; hence, a wedding or a triumphal procession. XVII "Thamud" and "'Ad," two of the primitive tribes which figure prominently in the legendary history of Arabia. They flouted and stoned the prophets that were sent to them, and are constantly held up in the Koran as terrible examples of the pride that goeth before destruction. "Hashem's fearless lad," Mohammed the Prophet. XVIII I quote again from Omar, Fitzgerald's translation: "And this reviving Herb, whose Tender Green Fledges the River-Lip, on which we lean-- Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen."