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THE DIVAN
A LITTLE maid of Astrakan, | |
| An idol on a silk divan; | |
| She sits so still, and never speaks, | |
| She holds a cup of mine; | |
| ’T is full of wine, and on her cheeks | 5 |
| Are stains and smears of wine. | |
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| Thou little girl of Astrakan, | |
| I join thee on the silk divan: | |
| There is no need to seek the land, | |
| The rich bazaars where rubies shine; | 10 |
| For mines are in that little hand, | |
| And on those little cheeks of thine. | |
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WINE AND DEW
YOU may drink to your leman in gold, | |
| In a great golden goblet of wine; | |
| She ’s as ripe as the wine, and as bold | 15 |
| As the glare of the gold: | |
| But this little lady of mine, | |
| I will not profane her in wine. | |
| I go where the garden so still is | |
| (The moon raining through), | 20 |
| To pluck the white bowls of the lilies, | |
| And drink her in dew! | |
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THE JAR
DAY and night my thoughts incline | |
| To the blandishments of wine: | |
| Jars were made to drain, I think, | 25 |
| Wine, I know, was made to drink. | |
| |
| When I die, (the day be far!) | |
| Should the potters make a jar | |
| Out of this poor clay of mine, | |
| Let the jar be filled with wine! | 30 |
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THE FALCON
I AM a white falcon, hurrah! | |
| My home is the mountains so high; | |
| But away o’er the lands and the waters, | |
| Wherever I please, I can fly. | |
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| I wander from city to city, | 35 |
| I dart from the wave to the cloud, | |
| And when I am dead I shall slumber | |
| With my own white wings for a shroud. | |
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ARAB SONG
BREAK thou my heart, ah, break it, | |
| If such thy pleasure be; | 40 |
| Thy will is mine, what say I? | |
| ’T is more than mine to me. | |
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| And if my life offend thee, | |
| My passion and my pain, | |
| Take thou my life, ah, take it, | 45 |
| But spare me thy disdain! | |
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