What would Great Allah with the frozen sea? Would he of icy clouds a throne carve bright, Or would the demons of the deepest night A bar build where the shining stars sweep free?...
Across sea-meadows measureless I go, My wagon sinking under grass so tall The flowery petals in foam on me fall, And blossom-isles float by I do not know. No pathway can the deepening twilight show;...
In Spring of love and life, My Polish Rose, You faded and forgot the joy of youth; Bright butterfly, it brushed you, then left ruth Of bitter memory that stings and glows....
They sleep well here whom Allah loved and kept And treasured in his vineyard fair and fine, Most lustrous of the Orient pearls that shine, Which youth found where the waves of passion swept....
Pray! Pray! Let loose the bridle. Look not down! The humble horse alone has wisdom here. He knows where blackest the abysses leer And where the path in safety leads us down....
Oh, thankless Crimean land! in ruin laid Are now the castles that were once your pride! Here serpents and the owls from daylight hide, And robbers arm them for the nightly raid....
The reverent Mussulman bends low to greet You, Tschatir Dagh, Crimea's bright-masted ship! World-altar,--minaret--the place where dip Down stairs from golden Heaven for the feet!...
Below me half a world I see outspread; Above, blue heaven; around, peaks of snow; And yet the happy pulse of life is slow, I dream of distant places, pleasures dead. The woods of Lithuania I would tread...