Giaour 1

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1. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923.

2. The author died in or before 1940, so this work is also in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 75 years or less. This work may also be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

# The Giaour Part 1

a fragment of a Turkish tale

Lines 1-500

Text from the 11th Print Edition, 1814

Printed by T. Davison for J. Murray

### Lines 0001-0100

1. No breath of air to break the wave
2. That rolls below the Athenian's grave,
3. That tomb l which, gleaming o'er the cliff,
4. First greets the homeward-veering skiff,
5. High o'er the land he saved in vain
6. When shall such hero live again?
7. Fair clime! where every season smiles
8. Benignant o'er those blessed isles,
9. Which seen from far Colonna's height,
10. Make glad the heart that hails the sight,
11. And lend to loneliness delight.
12. There mildly dimpling Ocean's cheek
13. Reflects the tints of many a peak
14. Caught by the laughing tides that lave
15. These Edens of the eastern wave;
16. And if at times a transient breeze
17. Break the blue chrystal of the seas,
18. Or sweep one blossom from the trees,
19. How welcome is each gentle air,
20. That wakes and wafts the odours there!
21. For there the Rose o'er crag or vale,
22. Sultana of the Nightingale,
23. The maid for whom his melody
24. His thousand songs are heard on high,
25. Blooms blushing to her lover's tale;
26. His queen, the garden queen, his Rose,
27. Unbent by winds, unchill'd by snows,
28. Far from the winters of the west
29. By every breeze and season blest,
30. Returns the sweets by nature given
31. In softest incense back to heaven;
32. And grateful yields that smiling sky
33. Her fairest hue and fragrant sigh .
34. And many a summer flower is there,
35. And many a shade that love might share,
36. And many a grotto, meant for rest,
37. That holds the pirate for a guest ;
38. Whose bark in sheltering cove below
39. Lurks for the passing peaceful prow,
40. Till the gay mariner's guitar
41. Is heard, and seen the evening star ;
42. Then stealing with the muffled oar,
43. Far shaded by the rocky shore,
44. Rush the night-prowlers on the prey,
45. And turn to groans his roundelay.
46. Strange that where Nature lov'd to trace,
47. As if for Gods, a dwelling-place,
48. And every charm and grace hath mixed
49. Within the paradise she fixed
50. There man, enamour'd of distress,
51. Should mar it into wilderness,
52. And trample, brute-like, o'er each flower
53. That tasks not one laborious hour ;
54. Nor claims the culture of his hand
55. To bloom along the fairy land,
56. But springs as to preclude his care,
57. And sweetly woos him but to spare !
58. Strange that where all is peace beside
59. There passion riots in her pride,
60. And lust and rapine wildly reign,
61. To darken o'er the fair domain.
62. It is as though the fiends prevail'd
63. Against the seraphs they assail'd,
64. And fixed, on heavenly thrones, should dwell
65. The freed inheritors of hell
66. So soft the scene, so form'd for joy,
67. So curst the tyrants that destroy!
68. He who hath bent him o'er the dead,
69. Ere the first day of death is fled;
70. The first dark day of nothingness,
71. The last of danger and distress;
72. (Before Decay's effacing fingers
73. Have swept the lines where beauty lingers,)
74. And mark'd the mild angelic air
75. The rapture of repose that's there
76. The fixed yet tender traits that streak
77. The languor of the placid cheek,
78. And but for that sad shrouded eye,
79. That fires not wins not weeps not now
80. And but for that chill changeless brow,
81. Where cold Obstruction's apathy
82. Appals the gazing mourner's heart,
83. As if to him it could impart
84. The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon
85. Yes but for these and these alone,
86. Some moments aye one treacherous hour,
87. He still might doubt the tyrant's power,
88. So fair so calm so softly seal'd
89. The first last look by death reveal'd!
90. Such is the aspect of this shore'
91. Tis Greece but living Greece no more!
92. So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
93. We start for soul is wanting there.
94. Hers is the loveliness in death,
95. That parts not quite with parting breath;
96. But beauty with that fearful bloom,
97. That hue which haunts it to the tomb
98. Expression's last receding ray,
99. A gilded halo hovering round decay,
100. The farewell beam of Feeling past away!

### Lines 0101-0200

1. Spark of that flame perchance of heavenly birth
2. Which gleams but warms no more its cherish'd earth!
3. Clime of the unforgotten brave!
4. Whose land from plain to mountain-cave
5. Was Freedom's home or Glory's grave
6. Shrine of the mighty ! can it be,
7. That this is all remains of thee?
8. Approach thou craven crouching slave-
9. Say, is not this Thermopylae?
10. These waters blue that round you lave
11. Oh servile offspring of the free
12. Pronounce what sea, what shore is this?
13. The gulf, the rock of Salamis!
14. These scenes their story not unknown
15. Arise, and make again your own;
16. Snatch from the ashes of your sires
17. The embers of their former fires,
18. And he who in the strife expires
19. Will add to theirs a name of fear,
20. That Tyranny shall quake to hear,
21. And leave his sons a hope, a fame,
22. They too will rather die than shame;
23. For Freedom's battle once begun,
24. Bequeathed by bleeding Sire to Son,
25. Though baffled oft is ever won.
26. Bear witness, Greece, thy living page,
27. Attest it many a deathless age!
28. While kingg in dusty darkness hid;
29. Have left a nameless pyramid,
30. Thy heroes though the general doom
31. Hath swept the column from their tomb,
32. A mightier monument command,
33. The mountains of their native land!
34. There points thy Muse to stranger's eye,
35. The graves of those that cannot die!
36. 'Twere long to tell, and sad to trace,
37. Each step from splendour to disgrace,
38. Enough no foreign foe could quell
39. Thy soul, till from itself it fell,
40. Yes! Self-abasement pav'd the way
41. To vilain-bonds and despot-sway.
42. What can he tell who treads thy shore?
43. No legend of thine olden time,
44. No theme on which the muse might soar,
45. High as thine own in days of yore,
46. When man was worthy of thy clime.
47. The hearts within thy valleys bred,
48. The fiery souls that might have led
49. Thy sons to deeds sublime;
50. Now crawl from cradle to the grave,
51. Slaves nay the bondsmen of a slave,
52. And callous, save to crime;
53. Stain'd with each evil that pollutes
54. Mankind, where least above the brutes;
55. Without even savage virtue blest,
56. Without one free or valiant breast.
57. Still to the neighbouring ports they waft
58. Proverbial wiles, and ancient craft,
59. In this the subtle Greek is found,
60. For this, and this alone, renown'd.
61. In vain might Liberty invoke
62. The spirit to its bondage broke,
63. Or raise the neck that courts the yoke:
64. No more her sorrows I bewail,
65. Yet this will be a mournful tale,
66. And they who listen may believe,
67. Who heard it first had cause to grieve.
68. Far, dark, along the blue sea glancing,
69. The shadows of the rocks advancing,
70. Start on the fisher's eye like boat
71. Of island-pirate or Mainote;
72. And fearful for his light caique
73. He shuns the near but doubtful creek,
74. Though worn and weary with his toil,
75. And cumber'd with his scaly spoil,
76. Slowly, yet strongly, plies the oar,
77. Till Port Leone's safer shore
78. Receives him by the lovely light
79. That best becomes an Eastern night.
80. Who thundering comes on blackest steed?
81. With slackened bit and hoof of speed,
82. Beneath the clattering iron's sound
83. The cavern'd echoes wake around
84. In lash for lash, and bound for bound;
85. The foam that streaks the courser's side,
86. Seems gather'd from the ocean-tide:
87. Though weary waves are sunk to rest,
88. There's none within his rider's breast,
89. And though to-morrow's tempest lower,
90. Tis calmer than thy heart, young Giaour!
91. I know thee not, I loathe thy race,
92. But in thy lineaments I trace
93. What time shall strengthen, not efface;
94. Though young and pale, that sallow front
95. Is scath'd by fiery passion's brunt,
96. Though bent on earth thine evil eye
97. As meteor like thou glidest by,
98. Right well I view, and deem thee one
99. Whom Othman's sons should slay or shun.
100. On on he hastened and he drew

### Lines 0201-0300

1. My gaze of wonder as he flew:
2. Though like a demon of the night
3. He passed and vanished from my sight;
4. His aspect and his air impressed
5. A troubled memory on my breast;
6. And long upon my startled ear
7. Rung his dark courser's hoofs of fear.
8. He spurs his steed he nears the steep,
9. That jutting shadows o'er the deep
10. He winds around he hurries by
11. The rock relieves him from mine eye
12. For well I ween unwelcome he
13. Whose glance is fixed on those that flee;
14. And not a star but shines too bright
15. On him who takes such timeless flight.
16. He wound along but ere he passed
17. One glance he snatched as if his last
18. A moment checked his wheeling steed
19. A moment breathed him from his speed
20. A moment on his stirrup stood
21. Why looks he o'er the olive wood?
22. The crescent glimmers on the hill,
23. The Mosque's high lamps are quivering
24. Though too remote for sound to wake
25. In echoes of the far tophaike,
26. The flashes of each joyous peal
27. Are seen to prove the Moslem's zeal.
28. To-night set Rhamazani's sun
29. To-night the Bairam feast's begun
30. To-night but who and what art thou
31. Of foreign garb and fearful brow?
32. And what are these to thine or thee,
33. That thou should'st either pause or flee?
34. He stood some dread was on his face
35. Soon Hatred settled in its place
36. It rose not with the reddening flush
37. Of transient Angers darkening blush,
38. But pale as marble o'er the tomb,
39. Whose ghastly whiteness aids its gloom.
40. His brow was bent his eye was glazed
41. He raised his arm, and fiercely raised;
42. And sternly shook his hand on high,
43. As doubting to return or fly;
44. Impatient of his flight delayed
45. Here loud his raven charger neighed
46. Down glanced that hand, and grasped his blade-
47. That sound had burst his waking dream,
48. As Slumber starts at owlet's scream.
49. The spur hath lanced his courser's sides
50. Away-r-away for life he rides
51. Swift as the hurled on high jerreed,
52. Springs to the touch his startled steed,
53. The rock is doubled and the shore
54. Shakes with the clattering tramp no more
55. The crag is won no more is seen -
56. His Christian crest and haughty mien.
57. 'Twas but an instant\* he, restrained
58. That fiery barb so sternly reined
59. 'Twas but a moment that he stood,
60. Then sped as if by death pursued;
61. But in that instant, o'er his soul
62. Winters of Memory seemed to roll;
63. And gather in that drop of time
64. A life of pain, an age of crime.
65. O'er him who loves, or hates, or fears,
66. Such moment pours the grief of years-
67. What felt he then at once opprest
68. By all that most distracts the breast?
69. That pause which pondered o'er his fate,
70. Oh, who its dreary length shall date!
71. Though in Time's record nearly nought,
72. It was Eternity to Thought!
73. For infinite as boundless space
74. Which in itself can comprehend
75. Woe without name or hope or end.
76. The hour is past, the Giaour is gone,
77. And did he fly or fall, alone?
78. Woe to that hour he came or went,
79. The curse for Hassan's sin was sent
80. To turn a palace to a tomb;
81. He came, he went, like the Simoom,
82. That harbinger of fate and gloom,
83. Beneath whose widely-wasting breath
84. The very cypress droops to death
85. Dark tree still sad, when others' grief is fled,
86. The only constant mourner o'er the dead!
87. The steed is vanished from the stall,
88. No serf is seen in Hassan's hall
89. The lonely Spider's thin grey pall
90. Waves slowly widening o'er the wall;
91. The Bat builds in his Haram bower;
92. And in the fortress of his power
93. The Owl usurps the beacon-tower;
94. The wild-dog howls o'er the fountain's brim,
95. With baffled thirst, and famine, grim,
96. For the stream has shrunk from its marble bed,
97. Where the weeds and the desolate dust are spread.
98. 'Twas sweet of yore to see it play
99. And chase the sultriness of day
100. As springing high the silver dew

### Lines 0301-0400

1. In whirls fantastically flew,
2. And flung luxurious coolness round
3. The air, and verdure o'er the ground.
4. 'Twas sweet, when cloudless stars were bright,
5. To view the wave of watery light,
6. And hear its melody by night.
7. And oft had Hassan's Childhood played
8. Around the verge of that cascade;
9. And oft upon his mother's breast
10. That sound had harmonized his rest;
11. And oft had Hassan's Youth along
12. Its bank been sooth'd by Beauty's song;
13. And softer seemed each melting tone
14. Of Music mingled with its own.
15. But ne'er shall Hassan's Age repose
16. Along the brink at Twilight's close
17. The stream that filled that font is fled
18. The blood that warmed his heart is shed!
19. And here no more shall human voice
20. Be heard to rage regret rejoice
21. The last sad note that swelled the gale
22. Was woman's wildest funeral wail
23. That quenched in silence all is still,
24. But the lattice that flaps when the wind is shrill
25. Though raves the gust, and floods the rain,
26. No hand shall close its clasp again.
27. On desart sands 'twere joy to scan
28. The rudest steps of fellow man,
29. So here the very voice of Grief
30. Might wake an Echo like relief
31. At least 'twould say, "all are not gone;
32. " There lingers Life, though but in one
33. For many a gijded chamber's there,
34. Which Solitude might well forbear;
35. Within that dome as yet Decay
36. Hath slowly worked her cankering way
37. But Gloom is gathered o'er the gate,
38. Nor there the Fakir's self will wait;
39. Nor there will wandering Dervise stay,
40. For Bounty cheers not his delay;
41. Nor there will weary stranger halt
42. To bless the sacred "bread and salt."
43. Alike must Wealth and Poverty
44. Pass heedless and unheeded by,
45. For Courtesy and Pity died
46. With Hassan on the mountain side.
47. His roof that refuge unto men
48. Is Desolation's hungry deu.
49. The guest flies the hall, and the vassal from labour,
50. Since his turban was cleft by the infidel's sabre!
51. I hear the sound of coming feet,
52. But not a voice mine ear to greet
53. More near each turban I can scan,
54. And silver-sheathed ataghan;
55. The foremost of the band is seen
56. An Emir by his garb of green:
57. "Ho! who art thou? this low salam
58. "Replies of Moslem faith I am.
59. "The burthen ye so gently bear,
60. "Seems one that claims your utmost care,
61. "And, doubtless, holds some precious freight,
62. "My humble bark would gladly wait."
63. "Thou speakest sooth, thy skiff unmoor,
64. "And waft us from the silent shore;
65. "Nay, leave the sail still fuii'd, and ply
66. "The nearest oar that's scattered by,
67. "And midway to those rocks\*where sleep
68. "The channel'd waters dark and deep.
69. "Rest from your task so bravely done,
70. "Our course has been right swiftly run,
71. "Yet 'tis the longest voyage, I trow, That one of
72. Sullen it plunged, and slowly sank,
73. The calm wave rippled to the bank;
74. I watch'd it as it sank, methought
75. Some motion from the current caught
76. Bestirr'd it more, 'twas but the beam
77. That chequer'd o'er the living stream
78. I gaz'd, till vanishing from view,
79. Like lessening pebble it withdrew;
80. Still less and less, a speck of white
81. That gemm'd the tide, then mock'd the sight;
82. And all its hidden secrets sleep.
83. Known but to Genii of the deep, 385
84. Which, trembling in their coral caves,
85. They dare not whisper to the waves.
86. As rising on its purple wing
87. The insect-queen of eastern spring,
88. O'er emerald meadows of Kashmeer
89. Invites the young pursuer near,
90. And leads him on fr,om flower to flower
91. A weary chase and wasted hour,
92. Then leaves him, as it soars on high,
93. With panting heart and tearful eye:
94. So Beauty lures the full-grown child
95. With hue as bright, and wing as wild;
96. A chase of idle hopes and fears,
97. Begun in folly, closed in tears.
98. If won, to equal ills betrayed,
99. Woe waits the insect and the maid,
100. A life of pain, the loss of peace,

### Lines 0401-0500

1. From infant's play, or man's caprice:
2. The lovely toy so fiercely sought
3. Has lost its charm by being caught,
4. For every touch that wooed it's stay
5. Has brush'd the brightest hues away
6. Till charm, and hue, and beauty gone,
7. Tis left to fly or fall alone.
8. With wounded wing, or bleeding breast,
9. Ah! where shall either victim rest?
10. Can this with faded pinion soar
11. From rose to tulip as before?
12. Or Beauty, blighted in an hour,
13. Find joy within her broken bower?
14. No: gayer insects fluttering by
15. Ne'er droop the wing o'er those that die,
16. And lovelier things liave mercy shewn
17. To every failing but their own,
18. And every woe a tear can claim
19. Except an erring sister's shame.
20. The Mind, that broods o'er guilty woes,
21. Is like the Scorpion girt by fire,
22. In circle narrowing as it glows
23. The flames around their captive close,
24. Till inly searched by thousand throes,
25. And maddening in her ire,
26. One sad and sole relief she knows,
27. The sting she nourished for her foes,
28. Whose venom never yet was vain,
29. Gives but one pang, and cures all pain,
30. And darts into her desperate brain.
31. So do the dark in soul expire,
32. Or live like Scorpion girt by fire;
33. So writhes the mind Remorse hath riven,
34. Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven,
35. Darkness above, despair beneath,
36. Around it flame, within it death!
37. Black Hassan from the Haram flies,
38. Nor bends on woman's form his eyes,
39. The unwonted chase each hour employs,
40. Yet shares he not the hunter's joys.
41. Not thus was Hassan wont to fly
42. When Leila dwelt in his Serai.
43. Doth Leila there no longer dwell?
44. That tale can only Hassan tell:
45. Strange rumours in our city say
46. Upon that eve she fled away;
47. When Rhamazan's l8 last sun was set,
48. And flashing from each minaret
49. Millions of lamps proclaim'd the feast
50. Of Bairam through the boundless East.
51. Twas then she went as to the bath,
52. Which Hassan vainly searched in wrath,
53. But she was flown Her. master's rage
54. In likeness of a Georgian page;
55. And far beyond the Moslem's power
56. Had wrong'd him with the faithless Giaour.
57. Somewhat of this had Hassan deem'd,
58. But still so fond, so fair she seem'd,
59. Too well he trusted to the slave
60. Whose treachery deserv'd a grave:
61. And on that eve had gone to mosque,
62. And thence to feast in his kiosk.
63. Such is the tale his Nubians tell,
64. Who did not watch their charge too well;
65. But others say, that on that night,
66. By pale Phingari's trembling light,
67. The Giaour upon his jet black steed
68. Was seen but seen alone to speed
69. With bloody spur along the shore,
70. Nor maid nor page behind him bore.
71. Her eye's dark charm 'twere vain to tell,
72. But gaze on that of the Gazelle,
73. It will assist thy fancy well&gt;
74. As large, as languishingly dark,
75. But Soul beam'd forth in every spark
76. That darted from beneath the lid,
77. Bright as the jewel of Giamschid
78. Yea, Soul, and should our prophet say
79. That form was nought but breathing clay,
80. By Alla! I would answer nay;
81. Though on Al-Sirat's I arch I stood,
82. Which totters o'er the fiery flood,
83. With Paradise within my view,
84. And all his Houris beckoning through.
85. Oh! who young Leila's glance could read
86. And keep that portion of his creed
87. Which saith, that woman is but dust,
88. A soulless toy for tyrant's lust?
89. On her might Muftis gaze, and own
90. I That through her eye the Immortal shone
91. On her fair cheek's unfading hue,
92. The young pomegranate's blossoms strew
93. Their bloom in blushes ever new
94. Her hair in hyacinthine flow
95. When left to roll its folds below;
96. As midst her handmaids in the hall
97. She stood superior to them all,
98. Hath swept the marble where her feet
99. Gleamed whiter than the mountain sleet
100. Ere from the cloud that gave it birth,