The Demon / Демон. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Now the steady

Rhythmic clapping and the singing

The bride brings to her feet, poised ready,

Her tambourine above her head

Is circling, she herself goes winging

Bird-light above rug, then stops,

Looks round, and lets her lashes drop

That envious hide her shining glance;

And now she raises raven brows,

Now suddenly sways forward slightly

Her slender foot peeps out, and lightly

It slides and swims into the dance;

And see she smiles – a joyous gleam

Aglow with childish merriment.

And yet… the white moon's sportive beam

In rippling water liquid bent

With such a smile could scarce compare

More live than life, than youth more fair.

VII

So by the midnight star I swear

By blazing East and beaming West

No Shah of Persia knew her peer

No King on earth was ever blessed

To kiss an eye so full and fine.

The harem's sparkling fountain never

Showered such a form with dewy pearls!

Nor had mortal fingers ever

Caressed a forehead so divine

To loose such splendid curls;

Indeed, since Eve was first undone

And man from Eden forth must fare

No beauty such as this, I swear,

Had bloomed beneath the Southern sun.

VIII

So now for the last time she danced

Alas! Tomorrow, she, the heir

Of old Gudaal, the daughter fair

Of liberty must bow her head

To a slave's fate like one entranced,

Adopt a country not her own,

A family she'd never known—

Often a secret doubt would shed

A shadow on her radiant face;

Yet all her movements were so free

Appealing, redolent of grace

So full of sweet simplicity

That, had the Demon soaring high

Above looked down and chanced to see…

Then, mindful of his former race,

He had turned from her – with a sigh…

IX

The Demon did see… For one second

It seemed to him that heaven beckoned

To make his arid soul resound

With glorious, grace-bestowing sound —

And once again his thought embraced

The sacrosanct significance

Of Goodness, Beauty and of Love!

And, strangely moved, his memory traced

The joys that he had known above

A chain of long magnificence

Before him link on link unfolding

As though he watched the headlong flight

Of star on star shoot through the night…

And, long the touching scene beholding,

Held spell-bound by some Power unseen,

New sadness in his heart awoke.