morning fill'd the east,
And the fog rose out of the Oxus[1] stream.
But all the Tartar[2] camp along the stream
Was hush'd, and still the men were plunged in sleep:
Sohrab alone, he slept not: all night long 5
He had lain wakeful, tossing on his bed;
But when the grey dawn stole into his tent,
He rose, and clad himself, and girt his sword,
And took his horseman's cloak, and left his tent,
And went abroad into the cold wet fog, 10
Through the dim camp to Peran-Wisa's[3] tent.

Through the black Tartar tents he pass'd, which stood
Clustering like bee-hives on the low flat strand
Of Oxus, where the summer floods o'erflow
When the sun melts the snows in high Pamere:[4] 15
Through the black tents he pass'd, o'er that low strand,
And to a hillock came a little back
From the stream's brink, the spot where first a boat,
Crossing the stream in summer, scrapes the land.
The men of former times had crown'd the top 20
With a clay fort: but that was fall'n; and now
The Tartars built there Peran-Wisa's tent,
A dome of laths, and o'er it felts were spread.
And Sohrab came there, and went in, and stood
Upon the thick-pil'd carpets in the tent, 25
And found the old man sleeping on his bed
Of rugs and felts, and near him lay his arms.
And Peran-Wisa heard him, though the step
Was dull'd; for he slept light, an old man's sleep;
And he rose quickly on one arm, and said:-- 30

[Peran-Wisa wakes and asks the reason of his coming. Sohrab proposes
to settle the battle by a duel with a champion selected by the
Persians. By this plan Rustum would hear of it, and father and son
meet at last.]

"Who art thou? for it is not yet clear dawn.
Speak! is there news, or any night alarm?"

But Sohrab came to the bedside and said:--
"Thou know'st me, Peran-Wisa: it is I.
The sun is not yet risen, and the foe 35
Sleep; but I sleep not, all night long I lie
Tossing and wakeful, and I come to thee.
For so did King Afrasiab[5] bid me seek
Thy counsel, and to heed thee as thy son,
In Samarcand,[6] before the army march'd, 40
And I will tell thee what my heart desires.
Thou knowest if, since from Ader-baijan[7] first
I came among the Tartars, and bore arms,
I have still serv'd Afrasiab well, and shown,