Poetry Archives

(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.