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TWO DREAMS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Deep on the bosom of jeel-begzad
Last Line: But the dream of the sleeping blade came true.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brankovichera, Vidosava


DEEP on the bosom of Jeel-Begzad
(Darling daughter of stern Bidar)
Sleeps the rose of her lover lad.
It brings this word: When the zenith-star
Melts in the full moon's rising light,
Then shall her Giaour come -- to-night.

What is the odor that fills her room?
Ah! 't is the dream of the sleeping rose;
To feel his lips near its velvet bloom
In the secret shadow no moonbeam knows,
Till the maiden passion within her breast
Kindles to flame where the kisses rest.

By the stealthy fingers of old Bidar
(Savage father of Jeel-Begzad)
Never bloodless in peace or war
Was a handjar sheathed; and each one had
Graved on its handle a Koran prayer --
He can feel it now, in his ambush there!

The moon rides pale in the quiet night;
It puts out the stars, but never the gleam
Of the waiting blade's foreboding light,
Astir in its sheath in a horrid dream
Of pain, of blood, and of gasping breath,
Of the thirst of vengeance drenched in death.
. . .
The dawn did the dream of the rose undo,
But the dream of the sleeping blade came true.





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