I. “HE is gone to the desert land! | |
| I can see the shining mane | |
| Of his horse on the distant plain, | |
| As he rides with his Cossack band! | |
| |
| “Come back, rebellious one! | 5 |
| Let thy proud heart relent; | |
| Come back to my tall white tent, | |
| Come back, my only son! | |
| |
| “Thy hand in freedom shall | |
| Cast thy hawks, when morning breaks, | 10 |
| On the swans of the Seven Lakes, | |
| On the lakes of Karajal. | |
| |
| “I will give thee leave to stray | |
| And pasture thy hunting steeds | |
| In the long grass and the reeds | 15 |
| Of the meadows of Karaday. | |
| |
| “I will give thee my coat of mail, | |
| Of softest leather made, | |
| With choicest steel inlaid; | |
| Will not all this prevail?” | 20 |
| |
II. “This hand no longer shall | |
| Cast my hawks, when morning breaks, | |
| On the swans of the Seven Lakes, | |
| On the lakes of Karajal. | |
| |
| “I will no longer stray | 25 |
| And pasture my hunting steeds | |
| In the long grass and the reeds | |
| Of the meadows of Karaday. | |
| |
| “Though thou give me thy coat of mail, | |
| Of softest leather made, | 30 |
| With choicest steel inlaid, | |
| All this cannot prevail. | |
| |
| “What right hast thou, O Khan, | |
| To me, who am my own, | |
| Who am slave to God alone, | 35 |
| And not to any man? | |
| |
| “God will appoint the day | |
| When I again shall be | |
| By the blue, shallow sea, | |
| Where the steel-bright sturgeons play. | 40 |
| |
| “God, who doth care for me, | |
| In the barren wilderness, | |
| On unknown hills no less | |
| Will my companion be. | |
| |
| “When I wander, lonely and lost | 45 |
| In the wind; when I watch at night | |
| Like a hungry wolf, and am white | |
| And covered with hoar-frost; | |
| |
| “Yea, wheresoever I be, | |
| In the yellow desert sands, | 50 |
| In mountains or unknown lands, | |
| Allah will care for me!” | |
| |
III. Then Sobra, the old, old man,— | |
| Three hundred and sixty years | |
| Had he lived in this land of tears,— | 55 |
| Bowed down and said, “O Khan! | |
| |
| “If you bid me, I will speak. | |
| There ’s no sap in dry grass, | |
| No marrow in dry bones! alas, | |
| The mind of old men is weak! | 60 |
| |
| “I am old, I am very old: | |
| I have seen the primeval man, | |
| I have seen the great Genghis Khan, | |
| Arrayed in his robes of gold. | |
| |
| “What I say to you is the truth; | 65 |
| And I say to you, O Khan, | |
| Pursue not the star-white man, | |
| Pursue not the beautiful youth. | |
| |
| “Him the Almighty made; | |
| He brought him forth of the light, | 70 |
| At the verge and end of the night, | |
| When men on the mountain prayed. | |
| |
| “He was born at the break of day, | |
| When abroad the angels walk; | |
| He hath listened to their talk, | 75 |
| And he knoweth what they say. | |
| |
| “Gifted with Allah’s grace, | |
| Like the moon of Ramazan | |
| When it shines in the skies, O Khan, | |
| Is the light of his beautiful face. | 80 |
| |
| “When first on earth he trod, | |
| The first words that he said | |
| Were these, as he stood and prayed, | |
| There is no God but God! | |
| |
| “And he shall be king of men, | 85 |
| For Allah hath heard his prayer, | |
| And the Archangel in the air, | |
| Gabriel, hath said, Amen!” | |
| |
