57

Like a tulip’s flame I burn
In your presence as I turn;
By my life, and yours, I swear
Youth of Persia ever fair!

I have dived, and dived again
With my thoughts into life’s brain
Until I prevailed to find
Every secret of your mind.

Sun and moon–I gazed on these
Far beyond the Pleiades,
And rebuilt a sanctuary
In your infidelity.

I have twisted well the blade
Till its edge was sharper made;
Pale the gleam and lustreless
Wasted in your wilderness.

My thought’s images dispense
To the Orient’s indigence
The bright ruby that I gain
From your mines of Badakhshan.

Comes the man, to free at last
Slaves confined in fetters fast;
Through the windows in the wall
Of your prison I see all.

Make a ring about me now;
In my breast a fire’s aglow
That your forebears lit one day,
Things of water and of clay;