Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, and Salámán and Absál Together...

First spoke The Shah;—“Salámán, Oh my Soul, Oh Taper of the Banquet of my House, Light of the Eyes of my Prosperity, And making bloom the Court of Hope with Rose; Years Rose-bud-like my own Blood I devour’d Till in my hand I carried thee, my Rose; Oh do not tear my Garment from my Hand, Nor wound thy Father with a Dagger Thorn. Years for thy sake the Crown has worn my Brow, And Years my Foot been growing to the Throne Only for Thee—Oh spurn them not with Thine; Oh turn thy Face from Dalliance unwise, Lay not thy Heart’s hand on a Minion! For what thy Proper Pastime? Is it not To mount and manage Rakhsh along the Field; Not, with no stouter weapon than a Love-lock, Idly reclining on a Silver Breast. Go, fly thine Arrow at the Antelope And Lion—let not me my Lion see Slain by the Arrow eyes of a Ghazál. Go, flash thy Steel among the Ranks of Men, And smite the Warriors’ Necks; not, flying them, Lay down thine own beneath a Woman’s Foot, Leave off such doing in the Name of God, Nor bring thy Father weeping to the Ground; Years have I held myself aloft, and all For Thee—Oh Shame if thou prepare my Fall!”

When before Shirúeh’s Feet Drencht in Blood fell Kai Khusrau, He declared this Parable— “Wretch!—There was a Branch that, waxing Wanton o’er the Root he drank from, At a Draught the Living Water Drain’d wherewith Himself to crown! Died the Root—and with it died The Branch—and barren was brought down!”