And Bulbul in the distance suffered pain, In the hard strait of absence from his love; And in the cage he sang his dolorous lay, Renouncing every hope of happiness. And in the cage he stood, lamenting loud, And mourning was his orison of morn; For every morning did he pray to God, To send him help in his disastrous plight, And said: “O God! I languish in the dust, A prey to anguish in this narrow cage; The halter of estrangement binds my neck; Estrangement from my love fetters me here. My soul within my sickening self confined Is like a wretched bird within a cage. Power and unrighteousness have dashed me down Into one narrow corner of the world. O God! Why does not life escape this cage And find its habitation in the stars? Sometimes thou art benign to mortal prayer, Oh, set me free from this accursed cage! I never cease to utter my lament, For I am slain by separation’s pain; And no one listens to my tale of woe, When I lament upon my absent love. And there is no one brings me, in my love, The tidings that I crave of my beloved. O that the Queen would some compassion show, And smile in recognition on her slave! O Lord, I flee to thee to gain thy help, And upon thee my firm foundation place; Therefore I melt thy Spirit with my sighs; Thou canst not fail at my petition’s plea. O God, my God, by all thy radiant light, Give succor to me, leave me not forlorn! Thou who the Author art of things that are, Open to me the door of my release.” As thus the wretched bird his song pursued, The deity the suffering suppliant heard; For when a tortured soul appeals to God God ever listens to his loud complaint. And all the time the Nightingale was heard, As is each soul that prays with earnestness. The sufferings that round that prisoner rose Were almost now unto their limit brought; For the East Wind, that cheers the souls of men, Arrived and saw the Nightingale encaged, And came and said, “My greeting to your Grace,” And bowed his forehead to the very dust. He said: “How fares it with thee, prisoner? How is it thou art prisoned thus by pain? And what transgression art thou guilty of, That thou art thus imprisoned in a cage? Who is it found thee guilty of a crime, That to confinement thou hast been consigned? Who is it that hath slandered thee abroad, And set thee thus behind the prison bar, When thou in freedom findest such delight, Who is it that has tortured thus thy heart? How is it thou art thus a prisoner found, Tormented with the anguish of thy heart? Come back again to glades of Gulistan, And let us hear thee speak thy heart’s desire.” LII THE CAPTIVE NIGHTINGALE ANSWERS THE KIND-HEARTED EAST WIND, WHO BRINGS TO THE PINING LOVER GREETING FROM THE RADIANT ROSE