O symbol of Gabriel on earth, O Aisha fair,Among all people with a heart of embers there;
She left her world like hermits, seeking to depart,From all existence and a life of bitter art;
She left her dreams behind without a word of grief,What befell thee — is there secret none may brief?
How didst thou find the wilderness a life of ease,And how did rugged hardship thee so deeply please?
Upon the pastures where fair planting pleased the eye,Companionship and humankind came drawing nigh;
Dost thou hear bleating on the margins of thy land,Or hear a song whose melody is magic, grand?
And of the wonders I beheld — a shepherdess,Whom nights made harsh, yet smiling was her countenance;
Was that a shepherdess upon the waste astray,Or was it garden-land with grass and radiant day?
Light wrapped her in its fairest, most resplendent fold,Adorned by noble bearing and by purity of gold;
O mistress of the white-fleeced flock ascending bright,Among the meadows as the dawn breaks into light;
Thy world — how soft its pastures, gentle to the eye,How sweet its breeze — it seems like poetry on high;
As though when thou appearest with a smiling face,Thou art a flower swaying, fragrant in its grace;
O mistress of the dark-fleeced flock, the sky's own eyeProtects thee, and the moon grows fragrant standing by;
Thy white sheep frolic when I watch them from afar,As though their light were flashes of the morning star;
Thy life's a wilderness — yet when I touch that ground,That very waste seems almost garden-land around;
Alone thou art within thy world, content and still,With what the fates and passing time may will;
O blessed wilderness, refuge for her who grewWeary of all falsehood from the faithless crew.
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