| |
| WHEN the Sultan Shah-Zaman | |
| Goes to the city Ispahan, | |
| Even before he gets so far | |
| As the place where the clustered palm-trees are, | |
| At the last of the thirty palace-gates, | 5 |
| The flower of the harem, Rose-in-Bloom, | |
| Orders a feast in his favorite room— | |
| Glittering squares of colored ice, | |
| Sweetened with syrop, tinctured with spice, | |
| Creams, and cordials, and sugared dates, | 10 |
| Syrian apples, Othmanee quinces, | |
| Limes, and citrons, and apricots, | |
| And wines that are known to Eastern princes; | |
| And Nubian slaves, with smoking pots | |
| Of spicëd meats and costliest fish | 15 |
| And all that the curious palate could wish, | |
| Pass in and out of the cedarn doors; | |
| Scattered over mosaic floors | |
| Are anemones, myrtles, and violets, | |
| And a musical fountain throws its jets | 20 |
| Of a hundred colors into the air. | |
| The dusk Sultana loosens her hair, | |
| And stains with the henna-plant the tips | |
| Of her pointed nails, and bites her lips | |
| Till they bloom again; but, alas, that rose | 25 |
| Not for the Sultan buds and blows, | |
| Not for the Sultan Shah-Zaman | |
| When he goes to the city Ispahan. | |
| |
| Then at a wave of her sunny hand | |
| The dancing-girls of Samarcand | 30 |
| Glide in like shapes from fairy-land, | |
| Making a sudden mist in air | |
| Of fleecy veils and floating hair | |
| And white arms lifted. Orient blood | |
| Runs in their veins, shines in their eyes. | 35 |
| And there, in this Eastern Paradise, | |
| Filled with the breath of sandal-wood, | |
| And Khoten musk, and aloes and myrrh, | |
| Sits Rose-in-Bloom on a silk divan, | |
| Sipping the wines of Astrakhan; | 40 |
| And her Arab lover sits with her. | |
| That ’s when the Sultan Shah-Zaman | |
| Goes to the city Ispahan. | |
| |
| Now, when I see an extra light, | |
| Flaming, flickering on the night | 45 |
| From my neighbor’s casement opposite, | |
| I know as well as I know to pray, | |
| I know as well as a tongue can say, | |
| That the innocent Sultan Shah-Zaman | |
| Has gone to the city Ispahan. | 50 |
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