{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/saab/saab26.htm","path":"isl/saab/saab26.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/saab/saab26.htm","text":"Salaman and Absal, by Jami, tr. Edward Fitzgerald, [1904]\nHeaven's Dome is but a wondrous House of Sorrow,\n And Happiness therein a lying Fable.\n When first they mix\u2019d the Clay of Man, and cloth\u2019d\n His Spirit in the Robe of Perfect Beauty,\n For Forty Mornings did an Evil Cloud\n Rain Sorrows over him from Head to Foot;\n And when the Forty Mornings pass\u2019d to Night,\n Then came one Morning-Shower\u2014one Morning-Shower\n Of Joy\u2014to Forty of the Rain of Sorrow!\u2014\nAnd though the better Fortune came at last\n To seal the Work, yet every Wise Man knows\n Such Consummation never can be here!\n Sal\u00e1m\u00e1n fired the Pile; and in the Flame\n That, passing him, consumed Abs\u00e1l like Straw,\n Died his Divided Self, and there survived\n His Individual; and, like a Body\n From which the Soul is parted, all alone.\n Then rose his Cry to Heaven\u2014his Eyelashes\n Dropt Blood\u2014his Sighs stood like a Smoke in Heaven,\n And Morning rent her Garment at his Anguish.\n He tore his Bosom with his Nails\u2014he smote\n Stone on his Bosom\u2014looking then on hands\n No longer lockt in hers, and lost their Jewel,\n He tore them with his Teeth. And when came Night,\n He hid him in some Corner of the House,\n And communed with the Fantom of his Love.\n \"Oh Thou whose Presence so long sooth\u2019d my Soul,\n \"Now burnt with thy Remembrance! Oh so long\n \"The Light that fed these Eyes now dark with Tears!\nOh Long, Long Home of Love now lost for Ever!\n \"We were Together\u2014that was all Enough\u2014\n \"We two rejoicing in each other's Eyes,\n \"Infinitely rejoicing\u2014all the World\n \"Nothing to Us, nor We to all the World\u2014\n \"No Road to reach us, nor an Eye to watch\u2014\n \"All Day we whisper\u2019d in each other's Ears,\n \"All Night we slept in one another's Arms\u2014\n \"All seem\u2019d to our Desire, as if the Hand\n \"Of unjust Fortune were for once too short.\n \"Oh would to God that when I lit the Pyre\n \"The Flame had left Thee Living and me Dead,\n \"Not Living worse than Dead, depriv\u2019d of Thee!\n \"Oh were I but with Thee!\u2014at any Cost\n \"Stript of this terrible Self-solitude!\n \"Oh but with Thee Annihilation\u2014lost,\n \"Or in Eternal Intercourse renew\u2019d!","title":"Salaman and Absal: Sal\u00e1m\u00e1n and Abs\u00e1l: XXIV","type":"page"}