His very sighs he felt constrained to stifle on his lip.
He cried: “‘The iron collars they’re compelled to wear;’[353]
There’s naught but iron collars; these are all we bear!15
‘Behind them is a barrier; but We’ve bound their eyes.’[354]
So that they see not what’s before, behind those ties.”
The barrier so upreared appears a level plain;
He knows not ’tis a bourn that checks him like a chain.
Thy witness is a barrier, bars sight of the Lord;
Thy teacher is a veil, shuts out God’s holy word.
How many infidels, oh! long faith to possess!