Note 443
TALE OF NUR AL-DIN AND HIS SON.
To the English reader these lines would appear the reverse of apposite; but Orientals have their own ways of application, and all allusions to Badawi partings are effective and affecting. The civilised poets of Arab cities throw the charm of the Desert over their verse by images borrowed from its scenery, the dromedary, the mirage and the well as naturally as certain of our bards who hated the country, babbled of purling rills, etc. thoroughly to feel Arabic poetry one must know the Desert (Pilgrimage iii., 63).
"I see their traces and with pain I melt, * And on their whilome homes I weep and yearn: And Him I pray who dealt this parting-blow * Some day he deign vouchsafe a safe return." [FN#443]
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