Excerpt from Matthew Arnold’s long poem “Sohrab
and Rustum”
Then Rustum raised his head;
his dreadful eyes
Glared, and he shook on high his menacing spear,
And shouted: Rustum°!—Sohrab
heard that shout,
And shrank amazed; back he recoil'd one step,
And scann'd with blinking eyes the advancing form;
And then he stood bewilder'd; and he
dropp'd
His covering shield, and the spear pierced his side.
He reel'd, and staggering back, sank to the
ground;
And then the gloom dispersed, and the wind fell,
And the bright sun broke forth, and melted all
The cloud; and the two armies saw the pair—
Saw Rustum standing, safe upon his feet,
And Sohrab, wounded, on the bloody sand.
Then, with a bitter smile,°
Rustum began:—
"Sohrab, thou thoughtest
in thy mind to kill
A Persian lord this day, and strip his corpse,
And bear thy trophies to Afrasiab's tent.
Or else that the great Rustum would come down
Himself to fight, and that thy wiles would move
His heart to take a gift, and let thee go.
And then all the Tartar host would praise
Thy courage or thy craft, and spread thy fame,
To glad° thy father in his weak old age.
Fool, thou art slain, and by an unknown man!
Dearer to the red jackals° shalt thou be
Than to thy friends, and to thy father old."
And, with a fearless mien, Sohrab replied:—
"Unknown thou art; yet thy fierce vaunt is vain
Thou dost not slay me, proud and boastful man!
No! Rustum slays me, and this filial heart.
For were I match'd with ten such men as thee,
And I were that which till to-day I was,
They should be lying here, I standing there
But that belovéd name unnerved my arm—
That name, and something, I confess, in thee,
Which troubles all my heart, and made my shield
Fall; and thy spear transfix'd an
unarm'd foe.
And now thou boastest, and
insult'st my fate.
But hear thou this, fierce man, tremble to hear
The mighty Rustum shall
avenge my death!
My father, whom I seek through all the world,
He shall avenge my death, and punish thee!"
"Man, who
art thou who dost deny my words?
Truth sits upon the lips of dying men,
And falsehood, while I lived, was far from mine.
I tell thee, prick'd upon this arm° I bear
That seal which Rustum to my mother gave,
That she might prick it on the babe she bore."