ABSTRACT
Up, O ye lovers, and away! ’Tis time to leave the world for aye. Hark, loud and clear from heaven the drum of parting calls—let none delay! The cameleer hath risen amain, made ready all the camel-train, And quittance now desires to gain: why sleep ye, travellers, I pray? Behind us and before there swells the din of parting and of bells; To shoreless Space each moment sails a disembodied spirit away. From yonder starry lights and through those curtain-awnings darkly blue Mysterious figures float in view, all strange and secret things display. From this orb, wheeling round its pole, a wondrous slumber o’er thee stole: O weary life that weighest naught, O sleep that on my soul dost weigh! O heart, towards thy heart’s love wend, and O friend, fly toward the Friend, Be wakeful, watchman, to the end: drowse seemingly no watchman may. From Nicholson’s translation of the Dinvan of Jalal-u-din, rumi.
