Page:The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East, Volume 08.djvu/98



O Love, forever doth heaven's wheel design

To take away thy precious life, and mine;

Sit we upon this turf, 'twill not be long

'Ere turf shall grow upon my dust, and thine!

When life has Bed, and we rest in the tomb,

They'll place a pair of bricks to mark our tomb;

And, a while after, mold our dust to bricks,

To furnish forth some other person's tomb!

Yon palace, towering to the welkin blue,

Where kings did bow them down, and homage do,

I saw a ringdove on its arches perched,

And thus she made complaint, "Coo, Coo, Coo, Coo!"

We come and go, but for the gain, where is it?

And spin life's woof, but for the warp, where is it?

And many a righteous man has burned to dust

In heaven's blue rondure, but their smoke, where is it?

Life's well-spring lurks within that lip of thine!

Let not the cup's lip touch that lip of thine!

Beshrew me, if I fail to drink his blood,

For who is he, to touch that lip of thine?

Such as I am, Thy power created me,

Thy care hath kept me for a century!

Through all these years I make experiment,

If my sins or Thy mercy greater be.