XII.


I ask that God in justice punish me
With death, if my love waver or grow less;
Faithful am I indeed--
How can you comprehend such faithfulness?

To you alone I offer up my heart,
To any other what have I to give?
No light demand I make,
What answer will you grant that I may live?

If on the last dread Day of Reckoning
I think of you, and in my heart there shine
The beauty of your face,
God's Beatific Vision shall be mine.

Once I had friends, now none are left to me;
I see none else but you, because my heart
Has wholly fled to you,
And thus I walk the ways of Earth apart.

I, Asif, am the chief of sinners held,
This dark dishonour will I not deny,
But glory in my shame;
Where is another sinner such as I?

ASIF.