1. You knew when the loves drew near,
That hearts are fires of passion lit;

2. And you learned that now our breasts
Are dove-cotes where young birds will flit;

3. While eyes for eyes made poor amends,
From those that pierced our souls and smit.

4. Not wine made roof and rafter reel,
But my heart's tumult flung me flat,

5. Though like a reveller I feel,
Who wakes and knows not where he's at.

6. My forehead hides a moon, whose rays,
Outshining sun and moon, would quit

7. The sky, and choosing there to blaze,
Would shame the sun that once shone bright.

8. His charms alone gave him the right
To raid the branches of the ban.

9. I see you as a bough made slight
By bounty, while the boughs of ban

10. Stand stiff in benefaction's demesne.
One spearpoint serves where spearheads ran;

11. His eyes for double swords at need
Make eyelids edge take swordblade's span.

12. The bow's content with single string,
His drawn brow serving for its bow,

13. The arrow's point enough can sting,
His glances for its arrows go.

14. And nights whose lightning mocked the dark
I spent confounded, lost in woe,

15. Like drunkard lurching, like one stark,
Bewildered, lorn, and fain to know

16. How, 'mid the stars, the swirling seas
In Serpent and the Whale can flow;

17. I made the Pleiades heart-ease,
As though we were not separate,

18. And dreams exalted me to heights
Far from the world and time's estate.

19. I scorned, when friends proved false, to sate
My pain in comrades of a day.

20. I was too proud to live on largesse
And doles from ministry that rules.

21. Idol-smasher, rise! Our night is o'er;
Come lead us, till the Cross lies prone!

22. Syria is thine by right of yore;
Thy line ruled it, since Jassan's reign.

23. Doubt not this land was ever theirs!
Question old Hareth of Golan!

24. Or read their virtues' record fair
In Hassan's ode and Harith's strain.

25. Earth quaked not here: within their breasts
Was tumult when thy drum was blown.

26. Their mountain fastnesses confessed
Thy rule, thy sultan's Might alone,

27. And men should rather prostrate fall,
When lofty buildings are o'erthrown.

28. Thou sentest troops, like lions all,
To rend the Franks with aid unguessed--

29. Who donned their mail, till men no more
Could dream the seas might grant them rest--

30. And rode the waste, devoid of folk,
For twenty days without a tent,

31. And twenty nights 'neath Capricorn
They fared, where sand's as water blent.

32. Lured by the barrens, there thy bands
Brought low the lofty battlement.

33. Thou hurriedst them, when they withstood,
To drink destruction's surgent flood

34. Whenas their chiefs thou hadst removed
With blades that bit and blades that hewed.

35. The tents upon the beach o'erthrown
Were washed alike in wave and blood.

36. At their decease thy sword drank full,
And blood and water were as one.

37. Then men praised Heaven that foemen fell
To dye thy mail a crimson tone.

38. Each teeming main runs red for thee,
With blood of ships thou put'st to flight.

39. Till thou behold'st their greenest sea
Turn to shygrel and rose bedight.

40. The Greek fleet, when it sailed to war,
Brought what no other fleet e'er brought

41. I loved to watch its hawks that wore
Dove's feathers: then with osprey fraught

42. Its prowling kites tore flesh in shreds.
Once cast for anchor stones, ropes taut,

43. With captives chained they sailed instead,
Hands bound behind them as they fought.

44. Hot for the fray against the foe,
Thy April fortune smiled elate,

45. When Shaban's closing days shall show
Division's star malignly great.

46. Thine, when the Martyr passed away,
His office was to instal the state--

47. Not cease to further, night and day,
What thought impossible of fate.

48. He slew the Prince, who led astray,
And though he strove to dominate,

49. I saw the wolds turn Judas grey
With vicar's blood in reprobate.

50. Men wondered, when his head was shown,
To see his lashes raying blue

51. As though above the spearhead strewn
Another spearpoint met the view!

52. Hail to the King! Should he prevail,
His throne by might shall stand secure.

53. His spears have deafened with their tale
Earth's sovrans, terror struck and dour.

54. Though floods may raze the highland towers,
His bounty builds them new and sure.

55. The brilliant fire of his mind flowers
In verse whose sweetness shall endure,

56. Like pearls his phrases charm the ear:
Had they assumed material powers,

57. They had adorned no brow severe
But wreaths and coronals and flowers.

58. You grace with gifts that far outvie
Time's treasuries and fortune's dower--

59. No caravan across the sky
Is burdened with such freight of ore--

60. O thou whose bounties aye increase,
Though lavished inexhaustible!

61. The desert necks are bowed with these,
And weigh them down intolerable,

62. Till mankind are as equals made,
The near and far on equal floor.

63. Your pardons those in need have weighed,
And those who sinful paths explore.