HKB
XVII.
When from The Sage these words Salámán heard, The breath of Wisdom round his Palate blew; He said—"Oh Darling of the Soul of Plato, To whom a hundred Aristotles bow; Oh Thou that an Eleventh to the Ten Original Intelligences addest,— I lay my Face before Thee in the Dust, The humblest Scholar of thy Court am I; Whose every word I find a Well of Wisdom, And hasten to imbibe it in my Soul. But clear unto thy clearest Eye it is, That Choice is not within Oneself—To Do, Not in The Will, but in The Power, to Do. From that which I originally am How shall I swerve? or how put forth a Sign Beyond the Power that is by Nature Mine?"
XVIII.
Unto the Soul that is confused by Love Comes Sorrow after Sorrow—most of all To Love whose only Friendship is Reproof, And overmuch of Counsel—whereby Love Grows stubborn, and increases the Disease. Love unreproved is a delicious food; Reproved, is Feeding on one's own Heart's Blood. Salámán heard; his Soul came to his Lips; Reproaches struck not Absál out of him, But drove Confusion in; bitter became The Drinking of the sweet Draught of Delight, And wan'd the Splendour of his Moon of Beauty. His Breath was Indignation, and his Heart Bled from the Arrow, and his Anguish grew— How bear it?—Able to endure one wound, From Wound on Wound no remedy but Flight; Day after Day, Design upon Design, He turn'd the Matter over in his Heart, And, after all, no Remedy but Flight. Resolv'd on that, he victuall'd and equipp'd A Camel, and one Night he led it forth, And mounted—he and Absál at his side, The fair Salámán and Absál the Fair, Together on one Camel side by side, Twin Kernels in a single Almond packt. And True Love murmurs not, however small His Chamber—nay, the straitest best of all.
When the Moon of Canaan Yúsuf Darken'd in the Prison of Ægypt, Night by Night Zulaikha went To see him—for her Heart was broken. Then to her said One who never Yet had tasted of Love's Garden: "Leavest thou thy Palace-Chamber For the Felon's narrow Cell?" Answer'd She, "Without my Lover, Were my Chamber Heaven's Horizon, It were closer than an Ant's eye; And the Ant's eye wider were Than Heaven, my Lover with me there!"
XIX.