The Mogul's Dream by Jean de La Fontaine — Read

Long since, a Mogul saw, in dream, / A vizier in Elysian bliss; / No higher joy could be or seem, / Or purer, than was ever his. / Elsewhere was dream'd of by the same / A wretched hermit wrapp'd in flame, / Whose lot e'en touch'd, so pain'd was he, / The partners of his misery. / Was Minos[1] mock'd? or had these ghosts, / By some mistake, exchanged their posts? / Surprise at this the vision broke; / The dreamer suddenly awoke. / Some mystery suspecting in it, / He got a wise one to explain it. / Replied the sage interpreter, / 'Let not the thing a marvel seem: / There is a meaning in your dream: / If I have aught of knowledge, sir, / It covers counsel from the gods. / While tenanting these clay abodes, / This vizier sometimes gladly sought / The solitude that favours thought; / Whereas, the hermit, in his cot, / Had longings for a vizier's lot. ' / To this interpretation dared I add, / The love of solitude I would inspire. / It satisfies the heart's desire / With unencumber'd gifts and glad -- / Heaven-planted joys, of stingless sweet, / Aye springing up beneath our feet. / O Solitude! whose secret charms I know -- / Retreats that I have loved -- when shall I go / To taste, far from a world of din and noise, / Your shades so fresh, where silence has a voice? / When shall their soothing gloom my refuge be? / When shall the sacred Nine, from courts afar, / And cities with all solitude at war, / Engross entire, and teach their votary / The stealthy movements of the spangled nights, / The names and virtues of those errant lights / Which rule o'er human character and fate? / Or, if not born to purposes so great, / The streams, at least, shall win my heartfelt thanks, / While, in my verse, I paint their flowery banks. / Fate shall not weave my life with golden thread, / Nor, 'neath rich fret-work, on a purple bed, / Shall I repose, full late, my care-worn head. / But will my sleep be less a treasure? / Less deep, thereby, and full of pleasure? / I vow it, sweet and gentle as the dew, / Within those deserts sacrifices new; / And when the time shall come to yield my breath, / Without remorse I'll join the ranks of Death.[2][3]

[1]: _Minos_. -- Chief judge in the infernal regions.