716 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. (December, 1911. 
Oh thou! of perfect grace the King and Lord ! 
May God be pleased to bless thee evermore, 
May He His choicest blessings thee afford, 
And may thou to the highest glory soar. 
And so beloved alike of God and man 
Stretch forth thy mighty hand o’er all the world ; 
Send forth thine high decrees to bless or ban 
And see thy foes to headlong ruin hurled. 
Protect thy people ; gladness to them bring ; 
And live for ever, O most noble King. 
IIl. 
Explanation. 
The quatrain is divided into three parts. In the first part 
(Nur-un bi-niir-in ‘ala-’ l-‘ Arshi-’ stawa, *‘ light has succeed- 
ed Light on the Throne! ), the writer announces the accession 
of His Majesty, and in so doing happily refers to His late 
Majesty, King Edward. The king is represented as the equal 
of his father, the highest encomium according to Arab ideas, 
and the words are an augury that His Majesty’s reign will be 
as happy and glorious as the reign of His late beloved Majesty. 
This beginning, in which the subject is at once revealed to the 
hearer, is in Arabic the rhetorical figure ( Jj! ds} 53), 
but further it contains a quotation from the Qur’an (Chapter 
XXV..4), ‘ala’l-’ Arshi’stawa, “settled on the throne,”’ 
another rhetorical figure ( (~'si3{ ) much admired by Arabian 
writers. 
In the second part (the remainder of the first line of the 
Arabic, but lines 2 and 3 of the English), the nation, in the 
person of the writer according to the Arabian poetical ideas, is 
invited to draw near and shelter itself under the shadow of the 
King’s Majesty. This part, apart from its figurative language, 
contains two examples of onomatapceia where the sound re- 
sembles the sense ; especially is this so in the words as-sarimy 
s-samami ‘‘ the intrepid invincible (king),’’ the sound of 
which is sonorous in Arabic. 
and _crushes his enemies, to protect his loyal subjects and 
staciously repair and forgive their errors. The whole finishes, 
\n a striking way, with a prayer for His Majesty’s long life; im 
