Page:With Sa'di in the Garden, or The Book of Love (1888).djvu/39

Of "Taverns," "Wine-cups," and the "Magian Boy"—
Knew Ishk, and teachings of Tusawwuf, knew
Hakîkat, Tariyat—as darkly shows
Gulshan-i-Raz, the "Mystic Rose Garden;"
A wise, and well-esteemed, and courteous Sage;
And he, the Saheb—my life-long friend—replied
Smilingly: "Excellent! if you would read
Sa'di's third chapter of the Bostân there
That 'Ishk' which sings of Love—you who can make
The Persian plain to us; since, good it were
To hear the tender couplets Mumtaz heard
There, in her Pleasaunce, by her Sepulchre;
And speak of Love, and what it is, and how,
And whither it should lead us, and God's will
Fashioning Beauty so to seize and sway
By grace so great; and these strange hearts of men
To passion for it, even to folly and death,
To mourn it with such splendor sorrowful
As yon white lordly anguish of the Taj.