Richard Le Gallienne: A Caravan from China comes

Updated September 23, 2019 | Infoplease Staff

A Caravan from China comes

(After Hafiz)

Richard Le Gallienne

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.
.com/t/poetry/modern-verse/caravan-from-china.html
Sources +