No More Learning

And I will lay thee in that lovely earth,
And heap a stately mound above thy bones, 800
And plant a far-seen pillar over all;
And men shall not forget thee in thy grave,
And I will spare thy host: yea, let them go:
Let them all cross the Oxus back in peace.
What should I do with slaying any more? 805
For would that all whom I have ever slain
Might be once more alive; my bitterest foes,
And they who were call'd champions in their time,
And through whose death I won that fame I have;
And I were nothing but a common man, 810
A poor, mean soldier, and without renown;
So thou mightest live too, my son, my son!
Or rather would that I, even I myself,
Might now be lying on this bloody sand,
Near death, and by an ignorant stroke of thine, 815
Not thou of mine; and I might die, not thou;
And I, not thou, be borne to Seistan;
And Zal might weep above my grave, not thine,
And say--_O son, I weep thee not too sore,
For willingly, I know, thou met'st thine end_. -- 820
But now in blood and battles was my youth,
And full of blood and battles is my age;
And I shall never end this life of blood. "

Then, at the point of death, Sohrab replied:--
"A life of blood indeed, thou dreadful man! 825
But thou shall yet have peace; only not now;
Not yet: but thou shalt have it on that day,[47]
When thou shalt sail in a high-masted ship,
Thou and the other peers of Kai-Khosroo,[48]
Returning home over the salt blue sea, 830
From laying thy dear master in his grave. "


[_Rustum is left by the body of his son. The river Oxus flows on
under the starlight into the Sea of Aral_. ]


And Rustum gaz'd on Sohrab's face, and said:--
"Soon be that day, my son, and deep that sea!
Till then, if fate so wills, let me endure. "

He spoke; and Sohrab smil'd on him, and took 835
The spear, and drew it from his side, and eas'd
His wound's imperious[49] anguish: but the blood
Came welling from the open gash, and life
Flow'd with the stream: all down his cold white side
The crimson torrent pour'd, dim now, and soil'd, 840
Like the soil'd tissue of white violets
Left, freshly gather'd, on their native bank,
By romping children, whom their nurses call
From the hot fields at noon: his head droop'd low,
His limbs grew slack; motionless, white, he lay-- 845
White, with eyes clos'd; only when heavy gasps,
Deep, heavy gasps, quivering through all his frame,
Convuls'd him back to life, he open'd them,
And fix'd them feebly on his father's face:
Till now all strength was ebb'd, and from his limbs 850
Unwillingly the spirit fled away,
Regretting the warm mansion which it left,
And youth and bloom, and this delightful world.

So, on the bloody sand, Sohrab lay dead.
And the great Rustum drew his horseman's cloak 855
Down o'er his face, and sate by his dead son.
As those black granite pillars, once high-rear'd
By Jemshid in Persepolis,[50] to bear
His house, now, mid their broken flights of steps,
Lie prone, enormous, down the mountain side-- 860
So in the sand lay Rustum by his son.

And night came down over the solemn waste,
And the two gazing hosts, and that sole pair,
And darken'd all; and a cold fog, with night,
Crept from the Oxus. Soon a hum arose, 865
As of a great assembly loos'd, and fires
Began to twinkle through the fog: for now
Both armies mov'd to camp, and took their meal:
The Persians took it on the open sands
Southward; the Tartars by the river marge: 870
And Rustum and his son were left alone.

But the majestic river floated on
Out of the mist and hum of that low land;
Into the frosty starlight, and there mov'd,
Rejoicing, through the hush'd Chorasmian[51] waste 875
Under the solitary moon: he flow'd
Right for the polar star, past Orgunje,[52]
Brimming, and bright, and large: then sands begin
To hem his watery march, and dam his streams,
And split his currents; that for many a league 880
The shorn and parcell'd Oxus strains along
Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles--
Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had
In his high mountain cradle in Pamere,
A foil'd circuitous wanderer:--till at last 885
The long'd-for dash of waves is heard, and wide
His luminous home of waters[53] opens, bright
And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bath'd stars
Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea.

--Arnold.


[1] Oxus. One of the great rivers of central Asia, forming the
boundary between Persia and Turan, or Tartary.

[2] Tartar. A general name given to the tribes in central Asia east
of the Oxus.

[3] Peran-Wisa (Pe'ran-We'sa). The commander of the Tartar tribes
which formed the army of King Afrasiab.

[4] Pamere. A plateau in central Asia.

[5] King Afrasiab (Afra'-siab). King of the Tartars.

[6] Samarcand. A city in Turkestan.

[7] Ader-baijan (Ader-bi'-yan). A province of Persia.

[8] Seistan (Sa-es-tan'). A district of eastern Persia.

[9] Perhaps because he is beginning to feel old, or on account of some
quarrel with the Persian king.

[10] Kara-Kul. A district in Persia.

[11] Casbin. A city in Persia.

[12] Elburz. A mountain range in northern Persia.

[13] Aralian estuaries. The mouth of the rivers flowing into the sea
of Aral.

[14] frore. frozen.

[15] Bokhara and Khiva. Districts of central Asia.

[16] The Tartars use an intoxicating liquor called koumiss, made from
mare's or camel's milk.

[17] Lines 118-134 mention various nomadic tribes; the names are of no
great importance.

[18] Attruck and Jaxartes (l. 126). Names of rivers.

[19] more doubtful service. Their allegiance was doubtful; they were
not bound to follow the army of King Afrasiab.

[20] Kuzzaks. Cossacks.

[21] Khorassan. A province of north-eastern Persia.

[22] Cabool. Cabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The trade route
between Cabul and Hindustan crosses the mountains at a great height.

[23] Iran. The original came of Persia.

[24] in plain arms. Without any device on his shield.

[25] fluted spine. The hollow spike at the top of the helmet, in
which the helmet-feather or crest is fitted.

[26] Dight. decked.

[27] Bahrein. An island.

[28] tale. number.

[29] perus'd. scanned.

[30] tried. experienced.

[31] Be govern'd. Take my advice.

[32] Chang'd gifts. Exchanged gifts, as a sign of friendship.

[33] Success is changeable as the wind.

[34] plummet. The lead used for sounding the depth of the sea.

[35] Hyphasis or Hydaspes. Two great rivers in northern India.

[36] wrack. ruin, destruction.

[37] that autumn star. Sirius, the dog star.

[38] minion. darling, or favorite. The word is generally used to
express contempt.

[39] Koords. The people of Kurdistan.

[40] It will be rumoured, or bruited, abroad.

[41] style. title or name.

[42] According to the original legend, Rustum left an amulet, or
charm, with the mother of Sohrab. Arnold has altered this detail of
the story, and substituted a seal for the amulet.

[43] griffin. A mythical creature, half-lion, half-eagle, which was
supposed to keep guard over hidden treasure. Just as in Roman
mythology, Romulus and Remus were reared by a she-wolf, so in Persian
mythology, Zal was reared by a griffin.

[44] Helmund. A river in Afghanistan.

[45] Sir. Another name for the river Jaxartes.

[46] silt. A deposit of mud or fine earth.

[47] This prophecy waa not fulfilled. Rustum, according to the
legend, met his death by treachery at the hand of his half-brother
Shughad.

[48] Kai Khosroo. The King of Persia, see line 220.

[49] imperious. demanding relief.

[50] Persepolis. An ancient city supposed to have been built by
Jemshid, or Jamshid, a mythical king of Persia.

[51] Chorasmian waste. A desert land, on the lower Oxus.

[52] Orgunje. A village on the Oxus.

[53] home of waters. The Aral Sea, or "Sea of Islands. "











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