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| HE who died at Azan sends | |
| This to comfort all his friends: | |
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| Faithful friends! It lies, I know, | |
| Pale and white and cold as snow; | |
| And ye say, “Abdallah ’s dead!” | 5 |
| Weeping at the feet and head. | |
| I can see your falling tears, | |
| I can hear your sighs and prayers; | |
| Yet I smile and whisper this,— | |
| “I am not the thing you kiss; | 10 |
| Cease your tears, and let it lie; | |
| It was mine, it is not I.” | |
| |
| Sweet friends! What the women lave | |
| For its last bed of the grave, | |
| Is a tent which I am quitting, | 15 |
| Is a garment no more fitting, | |
| Like a hawk my soul hath pass’d. | |
| Love the inmate, not the room— | |
| The wearer, not the garb,—the plume | |
| Of the falcon, not the bars | 20 |
| Which kept him from these splendid stars. | |
| |
| Loving friends! Be wise, and dry | |
| Straightway every weeping eye,— | |
| What ye lift upon the bier | |
| Is not worth a wistful tear. | 25 |
| Out of an empty sea-shell,—one | |
| Out of which the pearl is gone; | |
| The shell is broken, it lies there; | |
| The pearl, the all, the soul, is here. | |
| ’T is an earthen jar, whose lid | 30 |
| Allah seal’d, the while it hid | |
| That treasure of his treasury, | |
| A mind that lov’d him; let it lie! | |
| Let the shard be earth’s once more, | |
| Since the gold shines in his store! | 35 |
| |
| Allah glorious! Allah good! | |
| Now thy world is understood; | |
| Now the long, long wonder ends; | |
| Yet ye weep, my erring friends, | |
| While the man whom ye call dead, | 40 |
| In unspoken bliss, instead, | |
| Lives and loves you; lost, ’t is true, | |
| By such light as shines for you; | |
| But in light ye cannot see | |
| Of unfulfill’d felicity,— | 45 |
| In enlarging paradise, | |
| Lives a life that never dies. | |
| |
| Farewell, friends! Yet not farewell; | |
| Where I am, ye, too, shall dwell. | |
| I am gone before your face, | 50 |
| A moment’s time, a little space. | |
| When ye come where I have stepp’d | |
| Ye will wonder why ye wept; | |
| Ye will know, by wise love taught, | |
| That here is all, and there is naught. | 55 |
| Weep awhile, if ye are fain,— | |
| Sunshine still must follow rain; | |
| Only not at death,—for death, | |
| Now I know, is that first breath | |
| Which our souls draw when we enter | 60 |
| Life, which is of all life centre. | |
| |
| Be ye certain all seems love, | |
| View’d from Allah’s throne above; | |
| Be ye stout of heart, and come | |
| Bravely onward to your home! | 65 |
| La Allah illa Allah! yea! | |
| Thou love divine! Thou love alway! | |
| |
| He that died at Azan gave | |
| This to those who made his grave. | |
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