Towards democracy

416 Towards Democracy

V.

Therefore I say, stay, comrade, lover mire,

Nor wander far from me while life remains,

But let us rather, and if it may be, hand in hand,

Pass to that last strange change, therein perhaps to know each other

Nearer even than now.

Vi. Indeed, thou art so deep within my heart, I fear not Death. And though I die, and fail, Falling through stupors, senselessness, oblivion, Down to the roots of being; still, thou art there. I shall but sleep as I have slept before, So oft, in dreamless peace, close-linked with thee.

HAFiIz TO THE CUP-BEARER

EAR Son, that out of the crowded footways of Shiraz, D With hesitant step emerging, Camest and laid thy life down at my feet, Faint and ashamed, like one by some divine wine , vanquished :

I take thy gift, so gracious and sparkling-clear, Thy naive offering, as of a simple Nature-child, Wondering, like one who sees a rose in winter blooming, |

or cypress ’mid a wilderness of rocks: