VERSES AFTER HAFEZ
24
DAWN
I saw fair Fortune, one clear morning, touch
Like the bright-sceptred sun’s first point of scorn,
With slightest finger my full-ripen’d corn.
I glimps’d her beauty: slender was she, such
As the moon’s waning sickle, paled afar,
Or dawn’s faint star-sheaves that scarce vision’d are.
I said, ‘O my life’s crowning queen, for thee
Have I long toiled without repose or rest;
In hope of thee, my harvest heavenly,
Labour’d & waited, still thou lingerest,
Tryest me still’—She turning smil’d & said,
‘Though this be, be not thou uncomforted:
Lo now already thy night-ending sun
In world-seen splendour hath his day begun’.