IV.

  The humid clouds of spring float over the enamelled meads,
  And, like my eyes, dissolve in tears. 
  My fancy seeks thee in all places; and the beauties
  Of Nature retrace, at every moment,
  Thy enchanting image.  But thou, O cruel fair one! 
  Thou endeavourest to efface from thy memory
  The recollection of my ardent love—­my tender constancy.

    Thy charms eclipse the growing tulip—­
  Thy graceful stature puts to shame the lofty cyprus. 
  Let every nymph, although equal in beauty to Shireen,[10]
  Pay homage to thy superiority; and let all men
  Become like Ferhad[11] of the mountain,
  Distracted on beholding thy loveliness.

    How could the star of day have shone amidst the heavens,
  If the moon of thy countenance had not concealed
  Its splendour beneath the cloud of a veil? 
  Oh! banish me not from thy sight;
  Command me—­it will be charitable—­
  Command me to die. 
  How long wilt thou reject the amorous solicitations
  Of thy Khacan?  Wilt thou drive him to madness
  By thy unrelenting cruelty?  The doomed
  To endless tears and lamentations.

    [5] A person, called the Mawezn, summons the people to prayers
        from the tower, at certain stated times, by ringing bells.

    [6] Toos, the son of Nouder, makes a conspicuous figure among
        the princes and warriors, celebrated by Ferdoosi in his book of
        Kings.

    [7] Caus supposed to have been Darius the Mede by some
        historians.

    [8] This poetical surname Khacan, adopted by Fath Ali Shah,
        signifies emperor or king.

    [9] The prophet Khezr (whom some mistake for Elias) is said to
        have discovered and tasted the “waters of immortality,” and
        consequently to be exempt from death.

    [10] Shireen, the favourite of Khosroo, is no less celebrated
        for her beauty than for the passion with which she inspired
        Ferhad.

    [11] Of this unfortunate lover Ferhad, the romantic story has
        been told by several distinguished writers.  The mountain to
        which our royal poet alludes is the Kooh Bisetoon (in the
        province of Curdistan), where are still visible many figures
        sculptured in the rock, which, by the romances of Persia, are
        ascribed to the statuary Ferhad.  Among these sculptures,
        travellers have noticed the representation of a
        female—­according to local tradition, the fair Shireen, mistress
        to King Khosroo, and the fascinating object of Ferhad’s love.  As
        a recompense for clearing a passage over the mountain of
        Bisetoon, by removing immense rocks, which obstructed the path
        (a task of such labour as far exceeded the power of common
        mortals, by Ferhad, however, executed with ease), the monarch