When Love is Over
Song of Khan Zada
Only in August my heart was aflame,Catching the scent of your Wind-stirred hair,Now, though you spread it to soften my sleepThrough the night, I should hardly care.
Only last August I drank that waterBecause it had chanced to cool your hands;When love is over, how little of loveEven the lover understands!
“Golden Eyes”
Oh Amber Eyes, oh Golden Eyes!Oh Eyes so softly gay!Wherein swift fancies fall and rise,Grow dark and fade away.Eyes like a little limpid poolThat holds a sunset sky,While on its surface, calm and cool,Blue water lilies lie.
Oh Tender Eyes, oh Wistful Eyes,You smiled on me one day,And all my life, in glad surprise,Leapt up and pleaded “Stay!”Alas, oh cruel, starlike eyes,So grave and yet so gay,You went to lighten other skies,Smiled once and passed away.
Oh, you whom I name “Golden Eyes,”Perhaps I used to knowYour beauty under other skiesIn lives lived long ago.Perhaps I rowed with galley slaves,Whose labour never ceased,To bring across Phoenician wavesYour treasure from the East.
Maybe you were an Emperor thenAnd I a favourite slave;Some youth, whom from the lions’ denYou vainly tried to save!Maybe I reigned, a mighty King,The early nations knew,And you were some slight captive thing,Some maiden whom I slew.
Perhaps, adrift on desert shoresBeside some shipwrecked prow,I gladly gave my life for yours.Would I might give it now!Or on some sacrificial stoneStrange Gods we satisfied,Perhaps you stooped and left a throneTo kiss me ere I died.
Perhaps, still further back than this,In times ere men were men,You granted me a moment’s blissIn some dark desert den,When, with your amber eyes alightWith iridescent flame,And fierce desire for love’s delight,Towards my lair you came
Ah laughing, ever-brilliant eyes,These things men may not know,But something in your radiance lies,That, centuries ago,Lit up my life in one wild blazeOf infinite desireTo revel in your golden rays,Or in your light expire.
If this, oh Strange Ringed Eyes, be true,That through all changing livesThis longing love I have for youEternally survives,May I not sometimes dare to dreamIn some far time to beYour softly golden eyes may gleamResponsively on me?
Ah gentle, subtly changing eyes,You smiled on me one day,And all my life in glad surpriseLeaped up, imploring “Stay!”Alas, alas, oh Golden Eyes,So cruel and so gay,You went to shine in other skies,Smiled once and passed away.