MATTHEW ARNOLD

Was dull'd; for he slept light, an old man's
sleep;

29

And he rose quickly on one arm, and said: -
"Who art thou? for it is not yet clear dawn.
Speak! is there news, or any night alarm?"
But Sohrab came to the bedside, and said:
"Thou know'st me, Peran-Wisa: it is I.
The sun is not yet risen, and the foe
Sleep; but I sleep not; all night long I lie
Tossing and wakeful, and I come to thee.
For so did King Afrasiab1 bid me seek
Thy counsel, and to heed thee as thy son,
In Samarcand, before the army march'd;
And I will tell thee what my heart desires.
Thou know'st if, since from Ader-baijan 2 first
I came among the Tartars, and bore arms,
I have still serv'd Afrasiab well, and shown,
At my boy's years, the courage of a man.
This too thou know'st, that, while I still bear on
The conquering Tartar ensigns through the
world,

49

And beat the Persians back on every field,
I seek one man, one man, and one alone -
Rustum, my father; who, I hop'd, should
greet,

Should one day greet, upon some well-fought
field

His not unworthy, not inglorious son.
So I long hop'd, but him I never find.
Come then, hear now, and grant me what I ask.
Let the two armies rest to-day: but I
Will challenge forth the bravest Persian lords
To meet me, man to man: if I prevail,
Rustum will surely hear it; if I fall -
Old man, the dead need no one, claim no kin.
Dim is the rumour of a common 3 fight,
60
Where host meets host, and many names are
sunk :

3

But of a single combat Fame speaks clear."

He spoke and Peran-Wisa took the hand Of the young man in his, and sigh'd, and said:

"O Sohrab, an unquiet heart is thine!
Canst thou not rest among the Tartar chiefs,
And share the battle's common chance with us
Who love thee, but must press forever first,
In single fight incurring single risk,
To find a father thou hast never seen?
Or, if indeed this one desire rules all,
To seek out Rustum - seek him not through
fight:

Seek him in peace, and carry to his arms,

70

41

To seek thy father, not seek single fights
In vain: - but who can keep the lion's cub
From ravening? and who govern Rustum's
son?

Go: I will grant thee what thy heart desires."
So said he, and dropp'd Sohrab's hand, and
left

His bed, and the warm rugs whereon he lay,
And o'er his chilly limbs his woollen coat
He pass'd, and tied his sandals on his feet,
And threw a white cloak round him, and he
took

In his right hand a ruler's staff, no sword;
And on his head he placed his sheep-skin cap,
Black, glossy, curl'd, the fleece of Kara-Kul;2
And rais'd the curtain of his tent, and call'd
His herald to his side, and went abroad.
The sun, by this, had risen, and clear'd the
fog

100

From the broad Oxus and the glittering sands:
And from their tents the Tartar horsemen fil'd
Into the open plain; so Haman bade;
Haman, who next to Peran-Wisa rul'd
The host, and still was in his lusty prime.
From their black tents, long files of horse, they
stream'd:

As when, some grey November morn, the files
In marching order spread, of long-neck'd

3

cranes,
Stream over Casbin, and the southern slopes
Of Elburz, from the Aralian estuaries,
Or some frore Caspian reed-bed, southward

bound

5

1a district in southwestern Afghanistan, bordering on Persia 2 a district of Bokhara noted for sheep, near the city of Bokhara 3 Kasbin, a city south of the Caspian Sea and the Elburz Mountains belonging to the Aral Sea frozen

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Back quickly through the camp in fear and joy,
Fear at his wrath, but joy that Rustum came.
But Rustum strode to his tent door, and call'd

1 Zal was at this time old, but according to tradition he was born with snow-white hair, on which account his father cast him out on the Elburz Mountains, where he was miraculously preserved by a griffin, cf. ll. 676-9.