Indias Love Lyrics | Page 4

embraces as the snow-covered heights
Receive
from clouds, in northern, Auroral nights.
Such keen communion as
the frozen mere
Has with immaculate moonlight, cold and clear.

And all desire,
Like failing fire,
Died slowly, faded surely, and sank
to rest
Against the delicate chillness of your breast.
Zira: in Captivity
Love me a little, Lord, or let me go,
I am so weary walking to and fro

Through all your lonely halls that were so sweet
Did they but echo
to your coming feet.
When by the flowered scrolls of lace-like stone
Our women's
windows--I am left alone,
Across the yellow Desert, looking forth,
I
see the purple hills towards the north.
Behind those jagged Mountains' lilac crest
Once lay the captive bird's
small rifled nest.
There was my brother slain, my sister bound;
His
blood, her tears, drunk by the thirsty ground.
Then, while the burning village smoked on high,
And desecrated all
the peaceful sky,
They took us captive, us, born frank and free,
On
fleet, strong camels through the sandy sea.
Yet, when we rested, night-times, on the sand
By the rare waters of
this dreary land,
Our captors, ere the camp was wrapped in sleep,

Talked, and I listened, and forgot to weep.

"Is he not brave and fair?" they asked, "our King,
Slender as one tall
palm-tree by a spring;
Erect, serene, with gravely brilliant eyes,
As
deeply dark as are these desert skies.
"Truly no bitter fate," they said, and smiled,
"Awaits the beauty of
this captured child!"
Then something in my heart began to sing,

And secretly I longed to see the King.
Sometimes the other maidens sat in tears,
Sometimes, consoled, they
jested at their fears,
Musing what lovers Time to them would bring;

But I was silent, thinking of the King.
Till, when the weary endless sands were passed,
When, far to south,
the city rose at last,
All speech forsook me and my eyelids fell,

Since I already loved my Lord so well.
Then the division: some were sent away
To merchants in the city;
some, they say,
To summer palaces, beyond the walls.
But me they
took straight to the Sultan's halls.
Every morning I would wake and say
"Ah, sisters, shall I see our
Lord to-day?"
The women robed me, perfumed me, and smiled;

"When were his feet unfleet to pleasure, child?"
And tales they told me of his deeds in war,
Of how his name was
reverenced afar;
And, crouching closer in the lamp's faint glow,

They told me of his beauty, speaking low.
What need, what need? the women wasted art;
I love you with every
fibre of my heart
Already. My God! when did I not love you,
In life,
in death, when shall I not love you?
You never seek me. All day long I lie
Watching the changes of the
far-off sky
Behind the lattice-work of carven stone.
And all night
long, alas! I lie alone.

But you come never. Ah, my Lord the King,
How can you find it well
to do this thing?
Come once, come only: sometimes, as I lie,
I doubt
if I shall see you first, or die.
Ah, could I hear your footsteps at the door
Hallow the lintel and
caress the floor,
Then I might drink your beauty, satisfied,
Die of
delight, ere you could reach my side.
Alas, you come not, Lord: life's flame burns low,
Faint for a
loveliness it may not know,
Faint for your face, Oh, come--come
soon to me--
Lest, though you should not, Death should, set me free!
Marriage Thoughts: by Morsellin Khan
Bridegroom
I give you my house and my lands, all golden with
harvest;
My sword, my shield, and my jewels, the spoils of my strife,
My strength and my dreams, and aught I have gathered of glory, And
to-night--to-night, I shall give you my very life.
Bride
I may not raise my eyes, O my Lord, towards you,
And I may
not speak: what matter? my voice would fail.
But through my
dowacast lashes, feeling your beauty,
I shiver and burn with pleasure
beneath my veil.
Younger Sisters
We throw sweet perfume upon her head,
And
delicate flowers round her bed.
Ah, would that it were our turn to
wed!
Mother
I see my daughter, vaguely, through my tears,
(Ah, lost
caresses of my early years!)
I see the bridegroom, King of men in
truth!
(Ah, my first lover, and my vanished youth!)
Bride
Almost I dread this night. My senses fail me.
How shall I
dare to clasp a thing so dear?
Many have feared your name, but I your
beauty.
Lord of my life, be gentle to my fear!

Younger Sisters
In the softest silk is our sister dressed,
With silver
rubies upon her breast,
Where a dearer treasure to-night will rest.
Dancing Girls
See! his hair is like silk, and his teeth are whiter

Than whitest of jasmin flowers. Pity they marry him thus.
I would
change my jewels against his caresses.
Verily, sisters, this marriage is
greatly a loss to us!
Bride
Would that the music ceased and the night drew round us,

With solitude, shadow, and sound of closing doors,
So that our lips
might meet and our beings mingle,
While mine drank deep of the
essence, beloved, of yours.
Passing