Stars of the Desert/The Guru's tale: The enchanted night
The Guru's Tale: The Enchanted Night
When falling evening cooled the air,
The Guru, in the twilight dim,
Caressed his Chela's silken hair
And told this tale of love to him.
"Once, on the march to Bikanir,
I, halting by a wayside well,
Beheld a woman drawing near
Who cast on me a magic spell.
"Not hers the beauty, day by day
Soliciting by tender lures,
But that which strikes the heart straightway,
And instant victory ensures.
"She murmured, stretching forth her arms,
Her red, love-thirsty lips apart,
'At sunset,—under yonder palms,—
Come to my garden,—and my heart!'
"Ah, that unending afternoon!
The sun seemed tethered in the sky.
I felt my inmost senses swoon
With my desire's intensity.
"The silver twilight came at length,
I reached the garden cool and sweet,
And all my eager youth and strength
Lay at her small and jewelled feet.
"Three nights we gathered our delight:
I had almost kissed her lips away,
Yet still her eyes, alert and bright,
Resented the invading day.
"Alas, the fourth delirious eve
Ended in terrified surprise:
Her lamp alight she was wont to leave
For love allured her through the eyes.
"This night she cried in passionate pain,
Her heart seemed broken in her breast,
'Thy beauty is too great a strain,
Let us put out the light and rest.'
("Perchance you hold the speech too strong,
Or my recording it, conceit,
Ah, surely one who has lived so long
May own her words were true as sweet.)
"Then I, half rising to obey,
Beheld a strange and terrible sight,
'Take not,' she said, 'thyself away,
For I will quench the offending light.'
"She raised her arm, bejewelled and small,
It lengthened,—stretched across the room,—
Put out the light on the opposite wall,
And then,—diminished in the gloom!
"My pulses stopped, my passion died;
The square, rose-scented chamber ran
To thrice our length, from side to side,
And yet her arm had bridged the span!
"I wrenched myself from her embrace,
And, heeding not her desperate cry
Fled from that strange, enchanted place
As deer before the Cheetah fly.
"Beneath the starlight, cool and clear,
I raced across the sands alone,
And realised in stricken fear
No mortal mistress I had known.
"My spirit told me, as I sped,
Some tortured soul, escaped from hell,
One of the lonely, loveless dead
Had risen and wooed me by the well.
"Ah, Best-Beloved, though Youth be sweet,
He leads us to strange depths and heights.
Now leave me; later we shall meet
For worship with the Circling Lights."