Page:Lyra heroica.djvu/303

 And I will spare thy host; yea, let them go!

Let them all cross the Oxus back in peace !

What should I do with slaying any more?

For would that all whom I have ever slain

Might be once more alive my bitterest foes,

And they who were called champions in their time,

And through whose death I won that fame I

have

And I were nothing but a common man, A poor, mean soldier, and without renown, So thou mightest live too, my son, my son ! Or rather would that I, even I myself, Might now be lying on this bloody sand, Near death, and by an ignorant stroke of thine, Not thou of mine! and I might die, not thou; And I, not thou, be borne to Seistan; And Zal might weep above my grave, not thine; And say : O Son, I weep thee not too sore, For willingly, I know, thou mefst thine end! But now in blood and battles was my youth, And full of blood and battles is my age, And I shall never end this life of blood.'

Then at the point of death, Sohrab replied: 'A life of blood indeed, thou dreadful man! But thou shalt yet have peace ; only not now, Not yet! but thou shalt have it on that day, When thou shalt sail in a high-masted ship, Thou and the other peers of Kai Khosroo Returning home over the salt blue sea, From laying thy dear master in his grave.'

�� �