THE SUDANESE
DERVISH APPEARS
A restless lightning flashed in the water, | |
waves surged and rolled in the water; | 1760 |
a sweet scent wafted from the rose-garden of Paradise, | |
the spirit of that dervish of Egypt appeared. | |
His fire melted the pearl in the oyster-shell, | |
melted the stone in the breast of Kitchener. | |
He cried, Kitchener, if you have eyes to see, | 1765 |
behold the avenging of a dervishs dust! | |
Heaven granted no grave for your dust, | |
gave no resting-place but the salty ocean. | |
Then the words broke in his throat; | |
from his lips a heart-rending sigh was loosed. | 1770 |
Spirit of the Arabs, he cried, arise; | |
like your forebears, be the creator of new ages! | |
Fouad, Feisal, Ibn Saoud, | |
how long will you twist like smoke on yourselves? | |
Revive in the breast that fire which has departed, | 1775 |
bring back to the world the day that has gone. | |
Soil of Batha, give birth to another Khalid, | |
chant once more the song of Gods Unity. | |
In your plains taller grow the palm-trees; | |
shall not a new Farouk arise from you? | 1780 |
World of musky-hued believers, | |
from you the scent of eternal life is coming to me. | |
How long will you live without the joy of journeying, | |
how long with your destiny in alien hands? | |
How long will you desert your true station? | 1785 |
My bones lament in the deep like a reed-pipe; | |
are you afraid to suffer? The Chosen One declared, | |
"For man the day of suffering is the day of purification." | |
Cameleer, our friends are in Yathrib, we in Nejd; | |
sing that song which will stir the camel to ecstasy. | 1790 |
The cloud has rained, grasses have sprouted from the earth, | |
it may be that the camels pace grows languid. | |
My soul wails of the pain of separation; | |
take the road where fewer grasses grow. | |
My camel is drunk with the grass, I for the Beloved; | 1795 |
the camel is in your hands, I in the hands of the Beloved. | |
They have made a way for waters into the desert, | |
upon the mountains the palm fronds are washed. | |
Yonder two gazelles one after the other | |
see how they are descending from the hill, | 1800 |
for a moment drink from the desert spring | |
and then glance upon the traveller. | |
The dew has softened the sands of the plain like silk, | |
the highway is not hard for the camel: | |
the clouds ring on ring like the wings of the partridge | 1805 |
I fear the rain, for we are far from the goal. | |
Cameleer, our friends are in Yathrib, we in Nejd; | |
sing that song which will stir the camel to ecstasy. |