The Noble Steed

My loving father!

It is a cherished memory that perfumes my barren days and my darkest nights with its fragrance.

I remember it well, though events and ages have passed over it,

And you do not remember it... because it wafted from you without your knowing, as perfume wafts from the noble flower.

Do you remember, father, the day you took me one day to the gardens of "al-Qanatir"!

I was then still small.

I ran, and played, and leapt, and hovered about every flower like a butterfly, while you were near me, watching over me with your eyes.

And you knew that weariness would take its full toll of me.

And you knew that I was about to collapse under the burdens,

And cry out and wail, begging you to carry me to where there was rest and shady trees.

And how soon your insight proved true!

How soon I collapsed and gave out and fell to crying out and wailing,

And begged you to carry me to where there was rest and shady trees.

But you, father, said not a word...

You took out your little knife, and cut a branch from the tree, and said: "This is a noble steed — ride it to the big tree," and you pointed with your hand to a distant, spreading tree. I believed you, and mounted the noble steed, and galloped off on it, my energy renewed, and toil and weariness gone from me.

Do you suppose, father, that life has become any different for me since you left, and since I grew out of childhood?

No, by God — not by a finger's breadth!

For there may come upon me a season of time in which I find my mind grown weary, my spirit grown tired, my body worn down by events and sorrows, until it seems to me that I cannot take one more step forward in life.

Then I find a branch that time has cut with its little knife, and I hear in my ear someone whispering a whisper that the hearing misses, but that the soul's certainty and the love of life confirm: "This is a noble steed — ride it to this tree."

And I believe him, and mount it, and gallop off, weariness and toil gone from me, my heart filled with power for life, with the desire to endure, and with eagerness to reach the goal.