His house is furnished with distressful sighs.[60] He is a drunkard begging at tavern-doors, Stealing glimpses of beauty from lattices, Unhappy, melancholy, injured, 775 Kicked well-nigh to death by the warder; Wasted like a reed by sorrows, On his lips a store of complaints against Heaven. Flattery and spite are the mettle of his mirror, Helplessness his comrade of old; 780 A miserable base-born underling Without worth or hope or object, Whose lamentations have sucked the marrow from thy soul And driven off gentle sleep from thy neighbours’ eyes. Alas for a love whose fire is extinct, 785 A love that was born in the Holy Place and died in the house of idols! Oh, if thou hast the coin of poesy in thy purse, Rub it on the touchstone of Life! Clear-seeing thought shows the way to action, As the lightning-flash precedes the thunder. 790 It behoves thee to meditate well concerning literature, It behoves thee to go back to the Arabs: Thou must needs give thine heart to the Salmá of Araby,[61] That the morn of the Hijáz may blossom from the night of Kurdistan.[62] Thou hast gathered roses from the garden of Persia 795 And seen the springtide of India and Iran: Now taste a little of the heat of the desert, Drink the old wine of the date! Lay thine head for once on its hot breast, Yield thy body awhile to its scorching wind! 800 For a long time thou hast turned about on a bed of silk: Now accustom thyself to rough cotton! For generations thou hast danced on tulips And bathed thy cheek in dew, like the rose: Now throw thyself on the burning sand 805 And plunge into the fountain of Zemzem! How long wilt thou fain lament like the nightingale? How long make thine abode in gardens? O thou whose auspicious snare would do honour to the Phœnix, Build a nest on the high mountains, 810 A nest embosomed in lightning and thunder, Loftier than eagle’s eyrie, That thou mayst be fit for Life’s battle, That thy body and soul may burn in Life’s fire! FOOTNOTES: [58] _I.e._ in his body. [59] Khizr, according to the legend, discovered the Fountain of Life in the Land of Darkness. [60] In this passage the author assails the Persian and Urdu poetry so much in favour with his contemporaries. [61] Arabic odes usually begin with a prelude in which the poet makes mention of his beloved; and her name is often Salmá. Here “the Salmá of Araby” refers to the Koran and the ideals for which it stands.