THE DEMANDING BY ZULEIKHA OF UNION WITH JOSEPH, AND JOSEPH'S INDEPENDENCE.

When a fair form is stamped in any breast,
He in his business never can have rest.
The cash of union if he cannot find,
He on love's credit gambles in his mind.
When from his heart the thing goes to his eyes,
Blood trickles from his heart that bleeding lies.
When profit gains his tearful eye from this,
He falls to thinking of embrace and kiss.
Should he to kiss and to embrace attain,
In fear of parting he has constant pain.
In love there is of happiness no hope;
For purity of life there is no scope.
In drinking blood it aye begins alone:
And at the last comes death when this is done.
In ease when can the heart of him rejoice,
Of eating blood or death who has the choice?
Ere Joseph came before Zuleikha's eye,
In dream or fancy she could blissful lie.
Only to see his form could she aspire;
To seek and find him was her sole desire.
But when she saw him and that profit knew,
Her longing then for something higher grew.
After long search 'twas this she longed for in the end,
That that hope with a fond embrace might blend,
With kisses from his lips she might be blessed,
And in his cypress bosom find her rest.
The eye when of a grove a sight it gains
For roses' love it bears, like tulip, stains.
At first to see the rose it is content,
From sight on plucking it the hand is bent.
Zuleikha every plan for union tried,
Though Joseph from her ever stood aside.
Zuleikha tears of blood pours from her eyes,
Whilst Joseph ever from before her flies.
Zuleikha's heart was scarred with misery,
But from her fancy Joseph yet was free.
On his fair face Zuleikha's cheek would lie,
Turned tow'rds his foot was ever Joseph's eye.
Zuleikha's heart with every glance would burn,
Whilst Joseph from her look his eye would turn.
For fear of strife on her he would not look,
Nor would his eye her glance of passion brook.
The lover keeps that form not in his sight,
When eye to eye he cannot see its light.
He can not ever weep and heave the sigh,
His love to see who hopes not by-and-bye,—
When of her lover's state she will not know,
That from her lover's heart his blood should flow.
When to Zuleikha this grief found its way,
She in brief time in grievous ruin lay.
And in the autumn when it trouble knew,
Her red rose took the yellow tulip's hue.
Upon her heart there stood a heavy load of woe;
With sorrow bent her cypress like a bow.
From her red lips the lustre passed away,
And of her cheek the light extinguished lay.
She never combed her amber-scented hair,
But that her hand it from its roots would tear.
Towards her mirror she scarce turned her face,
But ever on her knees her cheek would place.
From the fresh blood that from her heart would bleed,
Her cheek of pigment never had a need.
The world was to her eye all dark and drear,
Then how should “surmá” on that eye appear?
“Surmá” to dye her eyes would she not lay,
Tears from her eyes would wash the stain away.
And when Zuleikha's heart with grief was sore,
Reproaches on herself her tongue would pour.
“O thou on thy affairs who shame hast brought,
“By longing for a slave that gold has bought,
“A king upon a throne him far above,
“Why thy own slave dost thou thus stoop to love?
“Seek for a lover like thyself in state,
“For monarchs only should with monarchs mate.
“Than all strange things there is one stranger still,
“That to thy union he bends not his will.
“Thy state if Egypt's women were to know,
“On thee reproofs a hundred would they throw.
“Their tongue in cursing would be loosed full soon
“A thing to point at as the crescent moon.”
Yet that unequalled one, though thus she'd say,
Dwelt not within her heart in such a way
That she could drive him from her heart at will;
And with this tale increased her sorrow still.
A lover's soul once knit with lover fond,
That soul can never then unloose the bond.
Of soul with body you may loose the tie,
But ever firm remains their unity.
How well said he, love's anguish whom had rent:
“Its hue the rose may lose, and musk its scent,
“But that a lover from his love should shrink,
“That were a thing impossible to think.”