> The Weeping Nation

> Love is a wild, a sentient sorrow
> That longs through life for Beauty

> Beauty lives behind the veil
> Feeding on Love's grief

> They may not meet, but Beauty gives
> A glimpse to Love at times

> Love will spasm in return
> The agony of separation

> Yearn, at least to touch the veil
> That hides the face of light

> Then weep, Love has no place
> With laughter, Love will weep

> And Beauty smiles, she knows
> Love burns with grief

> R.

> The prince returns in sombre mood--this attractive piece has a 1890s
> feel--Dowson etc., Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder etc.,
> Weeping  Nation? Are we talking princesses here?
> Nigel

> > The prince returns in sombre mood--this attractive piece has a 1890s
> > feel--Dowson etc., Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder etc.,
> > Weeping  Nation? Are we talking princesses here?
> > Nigel

> Cynara was our anthem in the dissolute, unfaithful college years.

> Notes to poems are frowned on here, but I shall forgive myself this once.
> The weeping nation is a term used to refer to my people -  the Ithna'
> sheri. The spiritual reading of the poem has Beauty as God, and Love as
> faith. Alternatively, this is a description of the underlying philosophy to
> the Persian / Urdu poetic form - the ghazal. The merit of a ghazal is often
> measured by how well it captures the wonder of Beauty, or the torment of
> Love. In that reading it is more a reflection on some of the themes that I
> have picked up in the Prince series.

> I acknowledge here a debt to Zamir Akhtar Naqvi, for his lucid and
> passionate lecture on the subject.

> R