Robert Louis Stevenson: Collected Poems Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Janet Adam Smith |
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Tales of Arabia
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 | Robert Louis Stevenson: Collected Poems |  |
II
Tales of Arabia
Yes, friend, I own these tales of Arabia
Smile not, as smiled their flawless originals
Age-old but yet untamed, for ages
Pass and the magic is undiminished.
Smile not, as smiled their flawless originals
Age-old but yet untamed, for ages
Pass and the magic is undiminished.
Thus, friend, the tales of old Camaralzaman,
Ayoub, the Slave of Love, or the Calendars
Blind-eyed and ill-starred royal scions,
Charm us in age as they charmed in childhood.
Ayoub, the Slave of Love, or the Calendars
Blind-eyed and ill-starred royal scions,
Charm us in age as they charmed in childhood.
Fair ones, beyond all numerability,
Beam from the palace, beam on humanity,
Bright-eyed, in truth, yet soulless houries
Offering pleasures and only pleasure.
Beam from the palace, beam on humanity,
Bright-eyed, in truth, yet soulless houries
Offering pleasures and only pleasure.
Thus they, the venal Muses Arabian—
Unlike, indeed, to nobler divinities,
Greek Gods or old time-honoured muses
Easily proffer unloved caresses.
Unlike, indeed, to nobler divinities,
Greek Gods or old time-honoured muses
Easily proffer unloved caresses.
289
Lost, lost, the man who mindeth their minstrelsy;
Since still, in sandy, glittering pleasances,
Cold, stony fruits, gem-like but quite in-
Edible, flatter and wholly starve him.
Since still, in sandy, glittering pleasances,
Cold, stony fruits, gem-like but quite in-
Edible, flatter and wholly starve him.
| Robert Louis Stevenson: Collected Poems | |