{
 "id": "ameen-rihani/saada",
 "title": "Saada",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ameen Rihani",
 "poet_slug": "ameen-rihani",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Myrtle and Myrrh",
 "book_slug": "myrtle-and-myrrh",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 24,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1905,
  "venue": "Myrtle and Myrrh (1905)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/myrtlemyrrhpoems00riha"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ameen-rihani_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Myrtle_and_Myrrh",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Chant_of_Mystics_and_Other_Poems",
   "https://archive.org/details/myrtlemyrrhpoems00riha",
   "https://archive.org/details/chantofmysticsot00riha"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 4
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Long hast thou suffered, sister of my heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still thou art",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair to see;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy pains thou entertainest with thy song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But how long",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Will this be?",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The seasons all have come and gone, my dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But thy cheer",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Still abides.",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "I ask which of thy moan or song is best",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou sayst:",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "“God decides.”",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I feel the ebbing of the undertone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thy moan",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy song;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "How long will tears and irony compete",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For thee, Sweet,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "O, how long?",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When wilt thou, Baby dear, with nimble feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Run to greet",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Me at the door?",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "When wilt thou, Saada, walk again with me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Near the sea,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "As before?",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O sister, how I wish to see thee run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the sun,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "On the sands!",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "The singing breakers and the smiling beach",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee reach",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Out their hands.",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The light of day is longing for thy face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the grace",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thy form;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "O how I wish to see thee, Noor-ul-Ain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Caught again",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "In the storm!",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ]
 ]
}