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(From Lot’s Wife, 1890)
OH, sweet passer! I am fair, | |
| For the lily scents my hair, | |
| Made most redolent and glossy by the radiant roses’ oil; | |
| My ringed arms are dazzling white, | |
| And my kiss is a delight, | 5 |
| While the sweet alhenna clusters burn my bosom while I toil. | |
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| Like my goddess, great Ishtàr, | |
| My black glance outshines a star, | |
| And my form is warm and wavy, like the palm and the tamar; | |
| I have sapphires and rare gems | 10 |
| On my mantle’s sacred hems, | |
| And the unguents on my haunches come o’er deserts from afar. | |
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| I hold, hidden in my tent, | |
| Drugs of love and ravishment, | |
| And a bed where fragrant lilies lie with birdlings’ downy plumes; | 15 |
| I hold passion and desire | |
| To inspire love’s sleepy fire, | |
| And to stir the sudden pulses in soft aromatic glooms! | |
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| Till the midnight I will sing | |
| Unto Nebo, the great king, | 20 |
| And my asor’s gentle music will allay thy fevered rest; | |
| Thou shalt slumber till my birds | |
| Wake to hear my loving words, | |
| While I press a thrice-born passion on the marble of my breast. | |
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| The pure night is waning fast; | 25 |
| Oh, my God Yem, unsurpassed! | |
| Send me golden lovers many, ay, if only for a span! | |
| And, oh passers wise and brave! | |
| Be not tempted by yon slave, | |
| For my kisses are far sweeter than the kisses of a man! | 30 |
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