1. You turned away, while still we yearned for union;
Yet we were thankful, though you gave but grief.

2. To every well-doer seeking your reward
Reward is due from us, and more but for belief.

3. O moon of loveliness tyrannized by shade,
None called you once the sun, for disbelief.

4. If we have sinned in what we fancied of you,
Sin becomes an ignored thing if excuse is brief.

5. Towards you each lovely-one came hurrying down,
And, when you left, the rain wept on your grief.

6. Still lightly sports your camp, and there do meet
The breeze, the rise, the bud, the bloom, the leaf.

7. And when a serpent seeks a spot to bide,
A place, where you have stepped, is pleasure-proof.

8. As though my heart, while you were here, became
Two halves, and one went travelling with you.

9. Before you left I stood to say farewell,
But from my breast all power of speech was gone.

10. And on the flames of parting I was cast,
And wished the glowing thing had not been fire.

11. I stretch a hand, to tear my raiment's flap,
But from me soars an eagle through desire.

12. My friends, no censure of you rest on me,
Though from a drunken reveller you fled.

13. I woke to find an idolater gone by,
No Bacchus he, although he reeled as red.

14. Yet you were heedless, when he tottered past,
For what he drank could bring no shame on you.

15. Now has the time swooped down on us, and we
Surrendered by it, while our weapons flew.

16. The year of error circled, heedlessness was ours,
Its months and days we treated as untrue.

17. When power was centered in these hands of ours,
Command and banning flourished as we knew.

18. God has a mother who anointed Him,
Till in the dawn we doubted if it shone.

19. Up she sprang, proof withdrawing from His side,
Proclaiming what her splendid son had done.

20. Before his birth, the noblest of mankind
Were promised by his essence and pure zone.

21. He came, as comes the friend, free from defect,
Not patched, nor needing tools to fashion one.

22. His attributes rose challengingly above him,
Pride subject to no other pride but His.

23. You see Him on a day of battle, when
The pool's hot-bubbling, and the fear stark-drawn,

24. Plunging to tear the souls, as stoops the kite,
Swooping wherever chance may bring it on.

25. In every field His hands make white blood red,
And brown cheeks blanch wherever He has gone.

26. Why should I now take long in time's despite,
When good and evil both are equal there?

27. The base uninjured lead a life of ease,
While un427 is galled by grief and care.

28. A folk to whom but poverty is dearth,
Though stores and plenty flame before them clear.

29. The rich they count a poor and luckless wight,
Who lacks the teeming gold and groaning gear.

30. Honor among them is a word concealing
A gulf 'twixt generosity and fear.

31. Can any win, when barriers like this rise
Twixt the longed goal and hands that grasp in dream?

32. All honor they have cast behind their backs,
And what they do for honor's sake, is bare.

33. Seek out their nobles, you will find them those
Of no avail, a benefit, or care.

34. Daily of them a number passing by,
Could make a thousand of their like seem rare.

35. Many, whose acts have plucked their sleeves to rags,
Come to you artificial, unaware.