FORGIVE,
AND TIME SHALL TEACH
THEE TO FORGET.
 
SAY! will Commiseration meet the man
Whose dark soul brooding o’er the nest of wrongs,
Hatches REVENGE, and meditates the plan
Of Horror, that to demon rage belongs?
 
’Tis great—’tis more—’tis heavenly to forgive
The heart that hates thee, or the hand that wounds;
But, near the Miscreant arm’d with power, to live,
Were to transgress, O CHARITY! thy bounds.
 
He who has injur’d thee—EXPERIENCE tells,
Will view thee after with a serpent’s eye;
SUSPICION from his breast each hope repels,
That memory of wrongs can ever die.
 
Amid discordant Thought’s perpetual jars
The fiends of MALICE all his fancies fill,
Watching some evil aspect of the stars,
Like fell DISEASE to work their baleful will.
 
ACHMED has felt RESENTMENT’s fury power,
(Impetuous despot of the youthful breast,)
Her writhing victim many an anguish’d hour,
Torn like the leveret in the vulture’s nest.
 
But now, by more than man’s behest, I’ll fly,
And seek forgetfulness of distant foes:
On HOPE’s soft bosom bid FORGIVENESS lie,
Sweeter than dew-drops on the unfolding rose.
 
She tells me, PENITENCE at length may find
Admission to the dark crime-tainted soul,
That some REMORSE may reach a VIZIER’s mind,
And ev’n a SEFFI’s pride-swoln heart controul.
 
AMBITION—AVARICE—haply will remain
Relentless, sordid, to life’s parting groan.
How few, like great KAI KOSRO* can disdain,
The charms of Victory, Riches, and a Throne.
 
Triumphant o’er himself, as o’er his foes,
He thank’d the GOD of goodness and retired,
Lamented the long train of human woes,
And led the life that PIETY inspired.
 
The GOLD long treasured in abundant store,
Flow’d from the fountain of his liberal hand,
In equal portions to the rich and poor,
Thro’ the wide circuit of the Persian land.
 
His heart at peace with all—the sage recluse
Found in SIMPLICITY and NATURE’s reign,
Joys sweeter far than Asciar’s* honied juice,
Than ABDAL JELLEIL’s* pure poetic strain.
 
The weak, the timid, rarely will forgive:
’Tis safer to offend the bold and strong.
The BRAVE MAN cannot let his hatred live;
The COWARD nurtures wrath his whole life long.
 
He who would reason FOLLY from the fool,
Strikes at an iron idol with his sword;
Where IMBECILITY attempts to rule,
The GOD OF MERCY never is adored.
 
To cherish HATE with adverse FORTUNE’s food,
Were to pay tribute to the fiend of STRIFE.
Detested ever by the wise and good
Heaven-seeking pilgrims through the ills of life.
 
Ah! who would deem, to hear the world of man
Boasting its guidance by a law divine,
That thus reversing FAITH and REASON’s plan,
TRUTH, GENIUS, VIRTUE, should in grief decline?
 
While round the lofty seat of POWER and PRIDE
A thousand guardian fiends of VICE appear;
Their outspread wings the face of NATURE hide,
Their yells for ever din the ROYAL ear.
 
In vain would INNOCENCE approach the throne
Of Flattery’s JEMSHID,* with her plaint of wrongs;
In vain AFFLICTION with a nation’s groan,
Claim what to JUSTICE and to LIFE belongs!
 
For thee, alas! lorn ACHMED, FATE design’d
No common trials, and no callous heart:
May then th’ ETERNAL LORD of all mankind
Grant thee to act a MOSLEM’s pious part!
 
Whilst envying Ignorance, Spleen, and Fraud, abound,
As TIME and FORTUNE tell the tale of truth;
May some safe solitary spot be found,
Where tranquil age may joy in mental youth.
 
Pitying the votaries of worldly love,
Who pant for SPOILS, DOMINION, or RENOWN,
Let me o’er those wild hills with FREEDOM rove,
Heedless of TREACHERY’s smile or SULTAN’s frown.
 
If rocks, and shoals, and quicksands, skirt the shore,
The sailor boldly dares the unfathom’d main,
Spreads there the sail, there labouring sweeps the oar,
A lonelier but less dangerous course to gain.
 
The world’s united less thro’ LOVE than FEAR.
I have been social, LOVE! thro’ thee alone;
And tho’ secluded mid these deserts drear
Shall social love the state of man bemoan.
 
Far from my soul, O GOD! whate’er my fate,
Be ISMAEL SOPHY’s* rage, or ROSTAM’s deadly hate.