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| IS it the palm, the cocoa-palm, | |
| On the Indian Sea, by the isles of balm? | |
| Or is it a ship in the breezeless calm? | |
| |
| A ship whose keel is of palm beneath, | |
| Whose ribs of palm have a palm-bark sheath, | 5 |
| And a rudder of palm it steereth with. | |
| |
| Branches of palm are its spars and rails, | |
| Fibres of palm are its woven sails, | |
| And the rope is of palm that idly trails. | |
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| What does the good ship bear so well? | 10 |
| The cocoa-nut with its stony shell, | |
| And the milky sap of its inner cell. | |
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| What are its jars, so smooth and fine, | |
| But hollowed nuts, filled with oil and wine, | |
| And the cabbage that ripens under the Line? | 15 |
| |
| Who smokes his nargileh, cool and calm? | |
| The master, whose cunning and skill could charm | |
| Cargo and ship from the bounteous palm. | |
| |
| In the cabin he sits on a palm-mat soft, | |
| From a beaker of palm his drink is quaffed, | 20 |
| And a palm-thatch shields from the sun aloft! | |
| |
| His dress is woven of palmy strands, | |
| And he holds a palm-leaf scroll in his hands, | |
| Traced with the Prophet’s wise commands! | |
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| The turban folded about his head | 25 |
| Was daintily wrought of the palm-leaf braid, | |
| And the fan that cools him of palm was made. | |
| |
| Of threads of palm was the carpet spun | |
| Whereon he kneels when the day is done, | |
| And the foreheads of Islam are bowed as one! | 30 |
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| To him the palm is a gift divine, | |
| Wherein all uses of man combine,— | |
| House and raiment and food and wine! | |
| |
| And, in the hour of his great release, | |
| His need of the palm shall only cease | 35 |
| With the shroud wherein he lieth in peace. | |
| |
| “Allah il Allah!” he sings his psalm, | |
| On the Indian Sea, by the isles of balm; | |
| “Thanks to Allah who gives the palm!” | |
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