When mine he press'd'-With deep despair
Brothers on brothers wildly stare;
From Erjun flew a wrathful glance;

Tow'rd them they saw their dread advance;
Then, trembling, breathless, pale with fear,
'Hear,' said the matron, calmly hear!
By Tulsy's leaf the truth I speak-
The Brahmen ONLY KISS'd my cheek.'
Straight its full height the wonder rose,
Glad with its native branch to close.

Now to the walk approach'd the sage
Exulting in his verdant age:

His hands, that touch'd his front, express'd
Due rev'rence to each princely guest,

Whom to his rural board he led

In simple delicacy spread,

With curds their palates to regale,

And cream-cups from the Gopia's pail.
Could you, ye fair, like this black wife,
Restore us to primeval life,

And bid that apple, pluck'd for Eve
By him, who might all wives deceive,
Hang from its parent bough once more
Divine and perfect, as before,

Would you confess your little faults?
(Great ones were never in your thoughts)
Would you the secret wish unfold,
Or in your heart's full casket hold?
Would you disclose your inmost mind,
And speak plain truth, to bless mankind?

What!' said the guardian of our realm,
With waving crest and fiery helm,

What! are the fair, whose heav'nly smiles
Rain glory through my cherish'd isles,
Are they less virtuous or less true
Than Indian dames of sooty hue?

No, by these arms. The cold surmise
And doubt injurious vainly rise.
'Yet dares a bard, who better knows,
This point distrustfully propose;
Vain fabler now! though oft before
His harp has cheer'd my sounding shore.'
With brow austere the martial maid
Spoke, and majestick trod the glade :
To that fell cave her course she held,
Where Scandal, bane of mortals, dwell'd.
Outstretch'd on filth the pest she found,
Black fetid venom streaming round:
A gloomy light just serv'd to show
The darkness of the den below.

Britannia,

Britannia, with resistless might,

Soon dragg'd him from his darling night:
The snakes, that o'er his body curl'd,
And flung his poison through the world,
Confounded with the flash of day,
Hiss'd horribly a hellish lay.

His eyes with flames and blood suffus'd,
Long to th' ethereal beam unus'd,
Fierce in their gory sockets roll'd;

And desperation made him bold:
Pleas'd with the thought of human woes,
On scaly dragon feet he rose.

Thus, when Asúrs, with impious rage,
Durst horrid war with Dévata's wage,
And darted many a burning mass
E'en on the brow of gemm'd Cailás,
High o'er the rest, on serpents rear'd,
The grisly king of Deits appear'd.

The nymph beheld the fiend advance,
And couch'd her far-extending lance:
Dire drops he threw; th' infernal tide
Her helm and silver hauberk dy'd:
Her moonlike shield before her hung;"
The monster struck, the monster stung:
Her
spear with many a griding wound
Fast nail'd him to the groaning ground.
The wretch, from juster vengeance free,
Immortal born by heav'n's decree,
With chains of adamant secur'd,
Deep in cold gloom she left immur'd.
Now reign at will, victorious fair,
In British or in Indian air!

Still with each envying flow'r adorn
Your tresses radiant as the morn;
And still with Asiatic dye

Rich tints for your gay robes supply;
Still through the dance's laby'rinth float,
And swell the sweetly-lengthen'd note;
Still, on proud steeds or glitt'ring cars,
Rise on the course like beamy stars;
And, when charm'd circles round you close
Of rhyming bards and smiling beaux,
Whilst all with eager looks contend
Their wit or worth to recommend,
Still let your mild, yet piercing eyes,
Impartially adjudge the prize.

AN ARABIAN ELEGY FROM EBNO'L FAREDH.

(Translated into English, by John COLLEGENS, Esq.)

Ebno'l Faredh, whose elegant work is preserved in the library at Oxford, is certainly superior to all modern poets. One elegy by this writer, which plainly shews the pastoral life of the Arabians, is here annexed.

We have endeavoured to translate this poem into elegiac verse, or rather to imitate it, with some sentiments a little varied and others totally rejected. Nevertheless, it is here presented in such a manner as to display with sufficient exactness both the subject and nature of the Arabian elegy.

[It requires indeed a variation from the original Arabian to adapt the wild and fanciful imagery of this elegy to the European ear.]

Does lightning vibrate in th' ætherial space ?
Or is unveil'd young Leila's beauteous face?
Does fire in yonder gadha* arbours flame?
Or is it Solima's bright eyes that beam?
Do scents on air from Mecca's violets move?
Or fragrancies from Hagar's spikenard grove?
Or is it Azza comes-a lovely fair-
Diffusing odours from her floating hair?
How pleasing is the retrospective view,
When fancy images past days anew,

While I, an exile, stray through foreign fields,
And pensive, know the joys which memory yields!
Still does the charmer in that valley keep,
Where her despairing swain was wont to weep!

Now does loud thunder through the mountains roar?
And look they greener from the sprinkling shower?

Ah! when, as formerly, at dawning day,
Shall Azib's limpid stream my thirst allay ?

Sweet plains, which saw what bliss I could attain,
Ah! shall I ever know such bliss again?

What youths now sing the hopes and fears of love,
At Tuda's pasture-ground and Naged's grove?

Who now, in Sala's cooling shades reclin'd,
Me in this dreary mountain calls to mind?

How shall I know, are still the myrtles green?
Is in its usual place the lotos seen?

Spring yet the tamarisks on the sunny hill?
Do these unlucky eyes, or winter kill?

* A species of esl or tamarisk, used as fire-wood by the Arabians.

Are

Are still the sweet Alegian damsels kind?
Or are my vows committed to the wind?

Do now the wanton deer and skipping fawns,
Their hunter absent, scamper through the fawns?

Shall I behold the charming shades again,
Where gay Noama * leads the airy train?

Does now o'er Dareg's banks th' arbutus spread?
Spot often moisten'd by the tears I shed!

In Amrus' grot, who since my absence dwell?
Grot to the sheperdesses known so well!

Perhaps they who to Mecca's vale return,
Have thought of Solima with soft concern!

May the time come, in which the happy night
Shall to the whole assembly give delight,
In which the youths shall tender vows impart,
While soothing music cheers each happy heart,

Extract from the SHAH NAMA, the heroic poem of the Persian poet
FERDUSI, by John COLLEGENS, Esq.

As soon as Samus, conquering lord, return'd,
And saw the king in sovereign pomp adorn'd
Approaching where th' imperial splendour shone,
He duteous bow'd to the refulgent throne.
Deservedly the king in courtly state
That chief invited to his ivory seat,
With rubies set, so exquisitely bright,

And gold emboss'd, it blaz'd upon the sight!
He then the general ask'd, in gracious words,
Of his exploits and his associate lords:
Now in Hyrcania what barbarians dwell?
Now what new conquests Persia's glories swell?
To whom, in language meet, the patriot man,
Thus in return his narrative began:

"O mighty king, when first the foe we view'd,
We saw a people vigorous and rude.

Not lions, who in lonely forests stray,

Not prowling tygers are so fierce as they :
And nothing can their power of flight exceed,

Not

Arabian writers inform us, that Noama was the name of one of the daughters

of Cain.

Not even of Araby, the generous steed.

Of our approach when first the rumour spread,
'Their state was seiz'd with universal dread;
'In every house and tower dismay appear'd,
And only lamentable groans were heard!
'At length their bands in martial order pass,
'Their helmets shining with resplendent brass!
'Part in a vale, part on a mount were seen,

And part were stretch'd along th' extensive green,
With dreadful spears!--The dust that o'er them came
'Obscur'd the glories of the solar beam!

So seem black ants, when studiously they fill,
'With stores of gather'd corn the sandy hill;
'Or as a multitude of gnats appear

With restless buzzing, grating to the ear.
So burst they forward! Cercius led them on,
* Grandson of Salmus, he the foremost shone;
Upon the mountain height the cypress tree

'Or lofty pine not taller was than he !

My Persians trembled as he came apace;

A sudden paleness spread o'er every face!
This I observ'd, and brandishing my lance,
Heading my men, commanded their advance!
My horse flew forward, senseless of the reins,
Like a wild elephant on Ethiop's plains!
'Twas then returning ardour fir'd each soul!
''Twas then my troops rush'd on to glory's goal!
As seems the rising and the falling Nile,

' (Which makes the parsimonious farmer smile,
'Whene'er the ground the fat manure receives,
As the flood rolls in undulating waves)

So seem'd the cover'd far-extended plain!
That moving army seem'd a floating main!
The noise in motion of our clattering arms,
The wary ears of Cercius soon alarms!
With clamour great he took a circling course,
Seeming toward me alone to turn his horse :
'He hop'd to load me with a captive chain,
'Or in my gore his flaming sabre stain :
• Fruitless attempt!-my bow I aiming bent,
And many a life-destroying arrow sent;
Like fire I saw my missile weapons fly,
Or like the lambent light'ning in the sky!
Approaching, he of our delay complains,

⚫ Menacing death or more ignoble chains,

'But, like a boisterous whirlwind when we clos'd,
Shield was to shield and helm to helm oppos'd! *

In the Thebais of Statius there is a beautiful passage similar to this:
Jam clypeus clypeis, umbone repellitur umbo,
Ense minax ensis, pede pes, et cuspide cuspis.

Just