Page:Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the astronomer-poet of Persia (IA ru00biytofomaromarrich).pdf/42

20 found several such in Persepolis; in one Place a fine Line of Háfiz: in another "an original, no doubt," he says, "by no great Poet," however "right in his Sentiment." The Words somehow looked to us, and the "halting metre" sounded, familiar; and on looking back at last among the 500 Rubáiyát of the Calcutta Omar MS.—there it is: old Omar quoted by one of his Countrymen, and here turned into hasty Rhyme, at any rate—

This Palace that its Top to Heaven threw, And Kings their Forehead on its Threshold drew— I saw a Ring-dove sitting there alone. And 'Coo, Coo, Coo,' she cried, and 'Coo, Coo, Coo.

So as it seems the Persian speaks the English Ring-dove's Péhlevi, which is also articulate Persian for "Where?"

—Bahrám of the Wild Ass, from his Fame in hunting it— a Sassanian Sovereign, had also his Seven Castles (like the King of Bohemia!) each of a different Colour; each with a Royal Mistress within side; each of whom recounts to Bahrám a Romance, according to one of the most famous Poems of Persia, written by Amír Khusraw: these Sevens also figuring (according to Eastern Mysticism) the Seven Heavens, and perhaps the Book itself that Eighth, into which the mystical Seven transcend, and within which they revolve. The Ruins of Three of these Towers are yet shown by the Peasantry; as also the Swamp in which Bahrám sunk, like the Master of Ravenswood, while pursuing his Gúr.

A Thousand Years to each Planet.

Saturn, Lord of the Seventh Heaven.

A Laugh at his Mathematics perhaps.