THE RUIN OF BARMECIDES[13]

  No, Barmec!  Time hath never shown
    So sad a change of wayward fate;
  Nor sorrowing mortals ever known
    A grief so true, a loss so great.

  Spouse of the world!  Thy soothing breast
    Did balm to every woe afford;
  And now no more by thee caress’d,
    The widow’d world bewails her Lord.

[13] The family of Barmec was one of the most illustrious in the
     East.  They were descended from the ancient kings of Persia, and
     possessed immense property in various countries; they derived still
     more consequence from the favor which they enjoyed at the court of
     Bagdad, where, for many years, they filled the highest offices of
     the state with universal approbation.

TO TAHER BEN HOSIEN[14]

  A pair of right hands and a single dim eye
  Must form not a man, but a monster, they cry:—­
  Change a hand to an eye, good Taher, if you can,
  And a monster perhaps may be chang’d to man.

[14] Taher Ben Hosien was ambidexter and one-eyed and, strange to say,
     the most celebrated general of his time.

THE ADIEU[15]

  The boatmen shout, “Tis time to part,
    No longer we can stay”—­
  ’Twas then Maimnna taught my heart
    How much a glance could say.

  With trembling steps to me she came;
    “Farewell,” she would have cried,
  But ere her lips the word could frame
    In half-form’d sounds it died.

  Then bending down with looks of love,
    Her arms she round me flung,
  And, as the gale hangs on the grove,
    Upon my breast she hung.

  My willing arms embraced the maid,
    My heart with raptures beat;
  While she but wept the more and said,
    “Would we had never met!”

Abou Mohammed.

[15] This was sung before the Caliph Wathek, by Abou Mohammed, a
     musician of Bagdad, as a specimen of his musical talents; and such
     were its effects upon the Caliph, that he immediately testified his
     approbation of the performance by throwing his own robe over the
     shoulders of Abou Mohammed, and ordering him a present of an hundred
     thousand dirhems.

TO MY MISTRESS[16]

  Ungenerous and mistaken maid,
    To scorn me thus because I’m poor! 
  Canst thou a liberal hand upbraid
    For dealing round some worthless ore?

  To spare’s the wish of little souls,
    The great but gather to bestow;
  Yon current down the mountain rolls,
    And stagnates in the swamp below.

Abou Teman Habib.

[16] Abou Teman is considered the most excellent of all the Arabian
     poets.  He was born near Damascus A.H. 190, and educated in Egypt;
     but the principal part of his life was spent at Bagdad, under the
     patronage of the Abasside Caliphs.