Page:The poetical works of Matthew Arnold, 1897.djvu/110

72 To cope with me in single fight; but they

Shrank, only Rustum dared; then he and I

Changed gifts, and went on equal terms away.'

So will he speak, perhaps, while men applaud;

Then were the chiefs of Iran shamed through me."

And then he turned, and sternly spake aloud,—

"Rise! wherefore dost thou vainly question thus

Of Rustum? I am here, whom thou hast called

By challenge forth; make good thy vaunt, or yield!

Is it with Rustum only thou wouldst fight?

Rash boy, men look on Rustum's face, and flee!

For well I know, that did great Rustum stand

Before thy face this day, and were revealed,

There would be then no talk of fighting more.

But being what I am, I tell thee this,—

Do thou record it in thine inmost soul:

Either thou shalt renounce thy vaunt, and yield,

Or else thy bones shall strew this sand, till winds

Bleach them, or Oxus with his summer-floods,

Oxus in summer wash them all away."

He spoke; and Sohrab answered, on his feet,—

"Art thou so fierce? Thou wilt not fight me so!

I am no girl, to be made pale by words.

Yet this thou hast said well, did Rustum stand

Here on this field, there were no fighting then.

But Rustum is far hence, and we stand here.

Begin! thou art more vast, more dread than I;

And thou art proved, I know, and I am young—

But yet success sways with the breath of Heaven.

And though thou thinkest that thou knowest sure

Thy victory, yet thou canst not surely know.

For we are all, like swimmers in the sea,

Poised on the top of a huge wave of fate,

Which hangs uncertain to which side to fall;