Lugubrious countenances are for our behoof;
That we may be reminded not to court reproof.
And beaming visages are not without their use,
If they recall us from mere form to sense occluse.
The various effigies we see in this bath-house,[318]
Disguised in draperies, are dolls;--blind fools to chouse. 530
So long as thou’rt outside, naught else but clothes thou’lt see.
Undress thyself. Come in; and see the nude, the free.
There’s no admission granted to a bath, while dressed.
But clothes, the body, this, the soul, leave all unguessed.
Our Arab man, from far in desert’s sandy waste,
Has reached at length the walls of Bagdād,--home of taste.
The guards, the officers, on duty at the gate,
Received him with politeness, kindness delicate.
Without a question asked, his case they’d understood.
Their charge was to show kindness first, ere asked for food. 535
So they addressed him thus: “Ho, thou, good Arab prince!
Whence comest thou? How fares it? Straight thy wish evince!”
He answered: “Prince I am, if you to me be kind;
But if you me contemn, I’m naught in my own mind.
Your aspects indicate you’re men of wealth and rank;
Your speech and smiles betoken breeding, noble, frank.
Mere sight of your kind features salve is to the eyes;
Your looks alone enrich;--gold in your voices lies.
Each one of you expression is of God’s own grace;
In Caliph’s bosom nurtured, favoured with high place; 540
That you, in turn, dispense th’ elixir of support,
And brighten longing eyes by words of kind import.
I am a stranger, poor, come from the desert’s sands,
In hopes some favour to obtain from sovereign hands.
The rumour of his goodness fills the wilderness;
Each atom in its wastes blooms thence in joyfulness.
In search of wealth have I approached his capital;
Now I’m arrived, I burn with pleasures optical.
E’en as the lass in search of bread at baker’s shop,
Struck with his ‘prentice’ beauty, swooned;--a lifeless drop! 545
Or like the saunterer for air in royal park,
Who lost his heart to one he met, gay as a lark!
Or like the desert merchant drawing from a well
What he thought water, was entranced by Joseph’s spell!
Again, as Moses hasted for a coal of fire,
And found the burning bush, that led him to empire!
Or Jesus, who escaped his foes with one fleet bound,
And found himself then landed where the sun goes round![319]
An ear of corn it was that baited Adam’s trap.[320]
But thence himself became the source of mankind’s sap! 550
The falcon stoops to earth enticed by luring fate;
He there meets man’s good teaching, soars to princely state.
A child is sent to school to teach him learning’s prize,
In hope of toys and treats he studies till he’s wise.
On leaving school he sits in seat of law or power;