Sultan ACHMET will not permit me
To see those cheeks, more vermilion than roses._

2. _I dare not snatch one of your kisses;
The sweetness of your charms has ravished my soul._

3. _Your eyes are black and lovely,
But wild and disdainful as those of a stag._

STANZA III

1. _The wretched_ IBRAHIM _sighs in these verses:
One dart from your eyes has pierc'd thro' my heart._

2. _Ah! when will the hour of possession arrive?
Must I yet wait a long time?
The sweetness of your charms has ravished my soul._

3. _Ah!_ SULTANA! _stag-ey'd--an angel amongst angels!
I desire,--and, my desire remains unsatisfied.--Can
you take delight to prey upon my heart?_

STANZA IV

1. _My cries pierce the heavens!
My eyes are without sleep!
Turn to me,_ SULTANA--_let me gaze on thy beauty._

2. _Adieu--I go down to the grave.
If you call me--I return.
My heart is--hot as sulphur;--sigh, and it will flame._

3. _Crown of my life! fair light of my eyes!
My_ SULTANA! _my princess!
I rub my face against the earth; I am drown'd in scalding tears--
I rave!
Have you no compassion? Will you not turn to look upon me?_

I have taken abundance of pains to get these verses in a literal
translation; and if you were acquainted with my interpreters, I might
spare myself the trouble of assuring you, that they have received no
poetical touches from their hands. In my opinion (allowing for the
inevitable faults of a prose translation into a language so very
different) there is a good deal of beauty in them. The epithet of
_stag-ey'd_ (though the sound is not very agreeable in English)
pleases me extremely; and I think it a very lively image of the fire
and indifference in his mistress's eyes.--Monsieur Boileau has very
justly observed, that we are never to judge of the elevation of an
expression in an ancient author, by the sound it carries with us;
since it may be extremely fine with them, when, at the same time, it
appears low or uncouth to us. You are so well acquainted with Homer,
you cannot but have observed the same thing, and you must have the
same indulgence for all Oriental poetry. The repetitions at the end
of the two first stanzas are meant for a sort of chorus, and are
agreeable to the ancient manner of writing. The music of the verses
apparently changes in the third stanza, where the burden is altered;
and I think he very artfully, seems more passionate at the