O my Love, how long wilt thou continue + 

Fondly nursing every dreaming Hour! + 

Our Lebanus, O my Love, is calling, + 

Yea, and waiting in his ancient Tower. + 

In his ancient, cedar-shaded castle, + 

Night and day, Lebanus sits a-musing + 

Of the memories that bloom unnoticed + 

Every season at the feet of Sorrow;⁠— + 

Musing of the radiant days of Tammuz + 

That went dancing with the bride of summer + 

Down the deep and pine-encircled Wadi;⁠— + 

Musing of the time the Prophets kindled + 

Sacred fire in Man’s empurpled temples, + 

Blazing all the highways of the world;⁠— + 

Musing of the days embattled monarchs + 

Laid their shields and lances at his feet, + 

Bowed before his throne invincible. + 

O my Love, the sad and lonely Cedar, + 

Ever rocking in her arid splendor, + 

Ever in penurious shades embosomed, + 

Reaches out for water in the meadows + 

And for sunlight in deserted vineyards;⁠— + 

Rears her hope above the snow eternal + 

Crowning her Time-hallowed desolation. + 

O my Love, the crumbling Temple ’s dreaming + 

Of the star that wanders from its orbit, + 

Of the rose that blooms and dies forsaken, + 

Of the leaves that fall from sheltering branches + 

Only to become the sport of chance winds + 

Or the bed of some unsightly creeper;⁠— + 

Dreaming of the Lebanon lily, drooping + 

In the dells beneath forbidding ridges;⁠— + 

Dreaming of the corymbs of the elder + 

That forgot the touch of loving hands, + 

For the zephyr of the South, which passes + 

O’er their bloom of tender welcome, only + 

Fans into a flame the smoldering embers + 

Of the anguish of departed lovers. + 

O my Love, the furzes are in full bloom + 

Waiting on the terrace of Lebanus + 

For the ardent and enamored seeker⁠— + 

Waiting, and the secret of their silence + 

Locked remains within their shells of amber + 

Till thou comest, till they hear thee whisper, + 

I am thine and thou art mine forever. + 

O my Love, how long wilt hither tarry, + 

Making toys of Time’s discarded hours? + 

Fair Lebanus, O my Love, is calling, + 

Yea, and waiting in his House of Flowers. + 

And around it wings of song unnumbered, + 

Amber-tinted, beryline, vermilion, + 

Pour their riches in the land of mourning, + 

Strew their silver in the olive grove, + 

Weave their magic through the almond blossoms, + 

Shake the incense from the terebinths, + 

Spread in vain their gladness o’er the pines. + 

Yea, a sea of Siren witchery, + 

Like the sundown inundates the heaven, + 

Rolling o’er a sea of boughs emblossomed, + 

Multi-hued, a-glow with burning rapture;⁠— + 

Waves of song are on the scented breezes, + 

Rolling o’er the virgin snow of Sanneen, + 

O’er the trackless verdure of the lowland, + 

O’er the mottled mountains joined forever + 

In a wild embrace of stony silence;⁠— + 

Rolling over Wadis fondly nursing + 

Cyclamens of unremembered seasons, + 

Oleanders of unfathered beauty, + 

Irises of mothered tenderness. + 

Yea, my Love, the robin in the olives + 

Thrills the very shadow of the branch; + 

In the pomegranate, thrush and skylark + 

Fill its crimson cups with flaming rapture; + 

In the fig tree and the laden vineyard, + 

Bulbuls chant the joy of harvest-time. + 

Yea, my Love, the birds of dawn are calling, + 

Whispering, chattering, warbling everywhere, + 

Dancing, flitting, waiting in the groves, + 

Lingering in the chinks of terraces, + 

Making early visits to their young. + 

Nay, they’re busy making preparation + 

For thy coming, longing to behold thee, + 

Singing meanwhile to the morning star, + 

Which borrows from thine eyes its radiance, + 

From thy tresses, all its golden splendor. + 

O my Love, how long wilt hither tarry, + 

Wilt dally with the web of Time, how long? + 

Lone Lebanus, O my Love, is calling, + 

Yea, and waiting in his House of Song. + 

And over it our star is re-appearing! + 

The star of our own destiny is rising + 

O’er the mountains of embrace eternal, + 

O’er the cedars of the sacred faith, + 

O’er the ruins of the ancient temple, + 

Flooding them with light of tender pallor + 

Like the light that lingers in the eyes + 

Of parted lovers⁠—shaking from the bosom + 

Of night their shadows, dew-drenched, iris-scented⁠— + 

Garlanding the messengers of morning + 

For the coming of the well-loved stranger. + 

Yea, the Star of Love, the Light supernal, + 

Before which bowed the world in adoration, + 

Is re-appearing in the Orient heaven + 

For thy sake, for thee, O my Belovéd. + 

Yea, without thee, neither song nor flower + 

Nor star nor temple of antique Lebanus, + 

Has aught compelling of the Soul’s devotion. + 

But with thee, the caves, the naked ridges, + 

The very rocks betoken the divine. + 

O my Love, how long wilt hither tarry + 

Weaving gossamer of day and night? + 

Sad Lebanus, O my Love, is calling, + 

Yea, and waiting in his House of Light. + 