Song of India + 

Now at the last, Zulaikha, all my sorrows olden + 

Are farther off than Europe or than China seem, + 

And like an idle dream + 

The North is faded far off in the distance golden; + 

And here with thee I sit in perfect peace enfolden + 

Beside the Ganges-stream. + 

Full well I knew that ne’er those northern promontories + 

Could give to me the dream that did my soul desire; + 

For there my heart did tire; + 

For always me allur’d the strangely whisper’d stories + 

Of skies that burn with more consuming languid glories, + 

And suns of mightier fire. + 

I dream’d of heavier suns than burn in skies of ours, + 

And heavier airs that through the long long evening swoon + 

Under a larger moon, + 

And heavier-scented gardens fill’d with stranger flowers, + 

And tropic palms that wave through all the long long hours + 

Of endless afternoon. + 

At last now from that northern dream am I awoken, + 

At last I am come home over the watery main; + 

Long long I sigh’d in vain; + 

Now under tropic palms I lie in peace unbroken, + 

And mine own land I see, beloved, and hear spoken + 

My natal tongue again. + 

Zulaikha, past is all the longing and endeavour; + 

The palm-trees sleep, and sleeping move not any leaf; + 

Perisht is woe and grief; + 

Stilly the padmas float upon the holy river; + 

Among all these we two with languid eyes forever + 

Lie sunk in endless kief. + 

Before us riseth white our marble-builded palace; + 

Thou hast let fall from out thy hands that weary are + 

The volume of Attár. + 

Thy hand hath spill’d the wine within the silver chalice; + 

Upon the river winding through the distant valleys + 

Sleepeth the nénufar. + 

From out the oleanders languid slumber steepeth, + 

And thou, Zulaihka, dost, in rest too deep for dream, + 

Like one enchanted seem; + 

Thy beauty now in waking slumber sunken sleepeth, + 

And dreaming past thy wholly closëd eyelids creepeth + 

The sleepy-flowing stream. + 

Thou hast the light of Asia in thy face divinest, + 

And in thy scented mouth and in thy lotus-eyes, + 

O wine of Paradise! + 

O moon-fac’d love that by the sacred stream reclinest, + 

Hath this world anything for which in vain thou pinest? + 

That thing shall be thy prize. + 

The caravans that in the desert, heavy-laden, + 

By unknown oases pitch their sun-blacken’d tents, + 

Shall bring thee all sweet scents + 

Wherein delight in heaven the houris ever-maiden⁠— + 

Patchouli, nard, and myrrh, from many a distant aden + 

Of heavenly indolence. + 

All kinds of gems wherefore thine almond eyes have yearning, + 

In heaps, wherein to bathe thy beauties languorous, + 

O maiden amorous, + 

They shall bring home to thee from distant isles returning⁠— + 

Pearl, sapphire, diamond, topaz, and ruby burning, + 

And opal luminous. + 

Thou art that sweet whereof all poets dead have chaunted, + 

Therefore my soul hath sought thy face o’er pathless seas, + 

Here to have endless peace; + 

Thou art the garden of delight with slumber haunted, + 

Thy perfume maketh dream of desert lands enchaunted, + 

And far-off oases. + 

Thou hast that beauty in thine all-consuming glances + 

That openeth the ways to far enchanted skies, + 

And in thy lotus-eyes + 

Thou hast the light that shineth in the countenances + 

Of them whose eyes have seen the glory which entrances + 

The blest of Paradise. + 

Thou art all sweets that unto perfect joy devote us, + 

In thee all spices and all scents together come, + 

O lute that now art dumb! + 

Thou art musk, frankincense, amomum, stephanotis, + 

Thou art the fragrant wine, the paradisal lotus, + 

Thou art the opium. + 

Hashsheesh nor opium are worth not thy caresses, + 

Sweeter than opium to still the spirit’s drouth + 

Thine unassuaged mouth; + 

Him that hath known thy love no mortal grief distresses; + 

Sweeter thy kisses are than incense which oppresses + 

The breezes of the South⁠ ⁠… + 

At last I am come home, come home; and all regretting + 

Is with the North afar from thee and me away. + 

Behold O love, the day + 

Is past, in Indian skies the holy sun is setting; + 

The mûzin from his tower calleth unforgetting, + 

The faithful ones to pray. + 

Under the velvet night wide Indiä reposes + 

Now in the scented dark the champak odours swoon; + 

Slowly the summer moon + 

Riseth into the azure night made drunk with roses; + 

And lo the camel-bells, now that the daylight closes, + 

Tinkle their quiet tune. + 

Behold, O well-beloved, ’neath the moonlight gleaming + 

The travellers depart from out the sleeping khan, + 

O perfume Asiän! + 

And past the moonlit palace, where we two lie dreaming, + 

With camels and with horsemen like to shadows seeming + 

Departs the caravan. + 

It is the starting hour, O most melancholy! + 

In long procession underneath the moon’s pale gleams, + 

Like something that but seems, + 

The caravan departeth to the desert slowly, + 

There far afar to seek through endless time the holy + 

Mirages of their dreams. + 