The Scented Garden

Ecstasy stronger than Death. 105 1. Death in the East rides a camel, not a white horse. 2. Bedawin — any wanderers. But the home- less necessarily live by robbery. Hence the para- doxes of Socialism. 3. Lit. sharp as [Persian text] zu’l faqar, the sword of Mohammed which he captured on the field of Badr. A sort of Eastern Excalibur, by the usual mythopoetic process. 4. I confess to fantastic license in translation of this curious passage. But some of the words are not Persian or anything else, and two or three seemed me formed in this manner. For example, I have translated [Persian text] “ Allah knows ” rea- sonably enough ; and [Persian text] Shayadistan, Perhaps — country, is well for “ maybe ”, while [Persian text] “ happy memory ” justifies “ Sweetit- was.” But what shall I say of [Persian text] and the rest — mangled though suggestive roots ? Possibly the poet knew very little about ships and their name. 5. Jolly Roger — again a coarse expression, best untranslated. The notorious debauchery of pirate ships, and the slang verb “ Roger ” (futuere]) sug- gested the present phrase. 6. The text would justify us in reading “ rounded pearls ” [Persian text] fairy (peri of Moore) and [Per- sian text] fullness. Where there was doubt, we have chosen what seemed the more poetical read- ing. 7. Some M.S. end with this Takhallus. See note 2. 8. This and the following stanzas seem inconse- quent. But they contain profound allusions. The thousand eyes of the peacock’s tail are equivalent to the thousand petals of the Sahasrara lotus in India ; the divine lotus that only exists as a throne