A Caravan From China Comes (After Hafiz)
A caravan from China comes;
For miles it sweetens all the air
With fragrant silks and dreaming gums,
Attar and myrrh—
A caravan from China comes.
O merchant, tell me what you bring,
With music sweet of camel bells;
How long have you been travelling
With these sweet smells?
O merchant, tell me what you bring.
A lovely lady is my freight,
A lock escaped of her long hair,—
That is this perfume delicate
That fills the air—
A lovely lady is my freight.
Her face is from another land,
I think she is no mortal maid,—
Her beauty, like some ghostly hand,
Makes me afraid;
Her face is from another land.
The little moon my cargo is,
About her neck the Pleiades
Clasp hands and sing; Hafiz, 't is this
Perfumes the breeze—
The little moon my cargo is.
