The Greatest Poems of Edwin Arnold (Illustrated Edition). Edwin Arnold

is finished, finished!" and the priests

      Stood with the wondering people in the streets

      Watching those golden splendours flood the sky

      And saying, "There hath happed some mighty thing."

      Also in Ran and jungle grew that day

      Friendship amongst the creatures: spotted deer

      Browsed fearless where the tigress fed her cubs,

      And cheetahs lapped the pool beside the bucks;

      Under the eagle's rock the brown hares scoured

      While his fierce beak but preened an idle wing;

      The snake sunned all his jewels in the beam

      With deadly fangs in sheath; the shrike let pass

      The nestling finch; the emerald halcyons

      Sate dreaming while the fishes played beneath,

      Nor hawked the merops, though the butterflies—

      Crimson and blue and amber-flitted thick

      Around his perch; the Spirit of our Lord

      Lay potent upon man and bird and beast,

      Even while he mused under that Bodhi-tree,

      Glorified with the Conquest gained for all

      And lightened by a Light greater than Day's.

      Then he arose—radiant, rejoicing, strong—

      Beneath the Tree, and lifting high his voice

      Spake this, in hearing of all Times and Worlds:

      Anekajatisangsarang

      Sandhawissang anibhisang

      Gahakarakangawesanto

      Dukkhajatipunappunang.

      Gahakarakadithosi;

      Punagehang nakahasi;

      Sabhatephasukhabhagga,

      Gahakutangwisang Khitang;

      Wisangkharagatang chittang,

      Janhanangknayamajhaga.

      Many a House of Life

      Held me—Seeking Ever Him Wrought

      These Prisons of the Senses, Sorrow-Fraught;

      Sore was My Ceaseless Strife!

      But Now,

      Thou Builder of this Tabernacle—Thou!

      I Know Thee! Never Shalt Thou Build Again

      These Walls of Pain,

      Nor Raise the Roof-Tree of Deceits, Nor Lay

      Fresh Rafters on the Clay:

      Broken Thy House is, and the Ridge-Pole Split!

      Delusion Fashioned it!

      Safe Pass I Thence—Deliverance to Obtain.