And once upon this festal holiday The Rose bethought her of the Nightingale, And said: “Where is that miserable fool Who was inebriate with wine and love? How fares it with the man of sighs and tears? How can he live dissociate from our grove? Shall we no longer hear that lute of his? What is it that has checked his thrilling lay? And has his heart been snatched away by pain? And was he haply driven from grief to dust? And has the flame of absence burnt him up? And is he slain by moody glance of mine? Is it the thorn has laid him suffering low, And him enlisted ’mid my deadliest foes?” They said to her, with salutation kind: “O Rose, the fairest paragon of charms, The wretch that was impaled upon the thorn Has since been prisoner made within a cage. By night and day behind the cage’s bar He sings aloud his melody of woe. Still he laments, and all his dolorous song Pierces the heart of hearers to the quick; And in the dreary prison-house enthralled Him no refreshment of delight consoles.” And when the tender Rose these tidings heard, She breathed a sigh over the beggar’s lot. “And shall the prisoner, detained in gyves, Never attain felicity again?” And full of pity, as his rescuer, She called for the East Wind, her messenger, And said: “East Wind, who cheerest every soul, Now let thy breath upon that beggar blow. Find him, and greet him wheresoe’er he be, And do him honor every way thou canst. And say to him, ‘O heart with suffering full, That without consolation feelest pain, How has the pang of absence slain thy soul? What is the blow that grief has dealt to thee? Thou art within this narrow cage confined, And overcome with pain and grief and fear. The dagger of thy grief has pierced thy heart; The agony of absence wastes thy breast; Long hast thou borne the languor absence brings; ’Tis time that thou should’st know fruition’s bliss. Though absence rages o’er thee like a storm, Thou still art worthy of the joy of love.’ Go, my East Wind, and with such words as these, Seek to console him with the news of bliss. Absence no more shall waste his mind away, Console him, then, and bring back heart to him.” The messenger East Wind, when this he heard, Answered “Long live the Queen,” and forth he went. He journeyed wide, and everywhere he sought To find where dwelt the mournful nightingale. LI THE PINING NIGHTINGALE LIES IN AFFLICTION IN THE CAGE AND TURNS HIMSELF TO GOD. THE KINDLY EAST WIND ARRIVES AND GIVES HIM INFORMATION AS TO THE CONDITION OF AFFAIRS