And then he turn’d, and sternly spake aloud:—­
  “Rise! wherefore dost thou vainly question thus
  Of Rustum?  I am here, whom thou hast call’d
  By challenge forth; make good thy vaunt, or yield. 
  Is it with Rustum only thou would’st fight? 365
  Rash boy, men look on Rustum’s face and flee. 
  For well I know, that did great Rustum stand
  Before thy face this day, and were reveal’d,
  There would be then no talk of fighting more. 
  But being what I am, I tell thee this; 370
  Do thou record it in thine inmost soul,
  Either thou shalt renounce thy vaunt, and yield;
  Or else thy bones shall strew this sand, till winds
  Bleach them, or Oxus with his summer floods,
  Oxus in summer wash them all away.” 375
  He spoke; and Sohrab answer’d, on his feet:—­
  “Art thou so fierce?  Thou wilt not fright me so. 
  I am no girl, to be made pale by words. 
  Yet this thou hast said well, did Rustum stand
  Here on this field, there were no fighting then, 380
  But Rustum is far hence, and we stand here. 
  Begin:  thou art more vast, more dread than I,
  And thou art prov’d, I know, and I am young,—­
  But yet success sways with the breath of heaven,[33]
  And though thou thinkest that thou knowest sure 385
  Thy victory, yet thou canst not surely know. 
  For we are all, like swimmers in the sea,
  Pois’d on the top of a huge wave of Fate,
  Which hangs uncertain to which side to fall. 
  And whether it will heave us up to land, 390
  Or whether it will roll us out to sea,
  Back out to sea, to the deep waves of death,
  We know not, and no search will make us know: 
  Only the event will teach us in its hour.”

[Sohrab avoids Rustum’s blow.  Rustum falls on the sand, and has his life spared by his son.]

  He spoke, and Rustum answer’d not, but hurl’d 395
  His spear:  down from the shoulder, down it came,
  As on some partridge in the corn a hawk
  That long has tower’d in the airy clouds
  Drops like a plummet;[34] Sohrab saw it come,
  And sprang aside, quick as a flash:  the spear 400
  Hiss’d, and went quivering down into the sand,
  Which it sent flying wide:  then Sohrab threw
  In turn, and full struck Rustum’s shield:  sharp rang,
  The iron plates rang sharp, but turn’d the spear. 
  And Rustum seiz’d his club, which none but he 405
  Could wield; an unlopp’d trunk it was, and huge,
  Still rough; like those which men in treeless plains
  To build them boats fish from the flooded rivers,
  Hyphasis or Hydaspes,[35] when, high up
  By their dark springs, the wind in winter-time 410
  Has made in Himalayan forests wrack,[36]
  And strewn the channels with torn boughs;