Blest are the tenants of the tomb!
With envy I their lot survey!
For Sayid shares the solemn gloom,
And mingles with their mouldering clay.
Dear youth! I'm doom'd thy loss to mourn
When gathering ills around combine;
And whither now shall Malec turn,
Where look for any help but thine?
At this dread moment when the foe
My life with rage insatiate seeks,
In vain I strive to ward the blow,
My buckler falls, my sabre breaks.
Upon thy grassy tomb I knelt,
And sought from pain a short relief--
Th' attempt was vain--I only felt
Intenser pangs and livelier grief.
The bud of woe no more represt,
Fed by the tears that drench'd it there,
Shot forth and fill'd my laboring breast
Soon to expand and shed despair.
But tho' of Sayid I'm bereft,
From whom the stream of bounty came,
Sayid a nobler meed has left--
Th' exhaustless heritage of fame.
Tho' mute the lips on which I hung,
Their silence speaks more loud to me
Than any voice from mortal tongue,
"What Sayid was let Malec be."
_Abd Almalec Alharithy_.
[2] Abd Almalec was a native of Arabia Felix. The exact period when
he flourished is unknown, but as this production is taken from the
Hamasa it is most probable that he was anterior to Mohammedanism.