C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Silent Sorrow

From ‘Joseph and Zulīkhā’: Translation of Samuel Robinson

ON the morrow, when the raven of night had taken its upward flight,

And the cock was crowing its morning carol,

And the nightingales had ceased their soul-moving chant,

And had withdrawn from the rose-bush the veil of the rose-bud,

And the violet was washing its fragrant locks,

And the jessamine was wiping the night dew from its face,

Zulīkhā still lay sunk in sweetest slumber,

Her heart-look still fixed on her last night’s altar;

Sleep it was not,—rather a delightful bewilderment,

A kind of insanity from her nocturnal passion!

Her waiting-maids impress the kisses on her feet,

Her damsels approach to give the hand-kiss;

Then she lifteth the veil from her dewy tulip cheeks,

And shaketh off the sleep from her love-languishing eyes;

She looketh around on every side, but seeth not a sign

Of the roseate image of her last night’s dream.