| |
| I SEE thee ever in my dreams, | |
| Karaman! | |
| Thy hundred hills, thy thousand streams, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| As when thy gold-bright morning gleams, | 5 |
| As when the deepening sunset seams | |
| With lines of light thy hills and streams, | |
| Karaman! | |
| So thou loomest on my dreams, | |
| Karaman! | 10 |
| On all my dreams, my homesick dreams, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| |
| The hot bright plains, the sun, the skies, | |
| Karaman! | |
| Seem death-black marble to mine eyes, | 15 |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| I turn from summer’s blooms and dyes; | |
| Yet in my dreams thou dost arise | |
| In welcome glory to mine eyes, | |
| Karaman! | 20 |
| In thee my life of life yet lies, | |
| Karaman! | |
| Thou still art holy in mine eyes, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| |
| Ere my fighting years were come, | 25 |
| Karaman! | |
| Troops were few in Erzerome, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| Their fiercest came from Erzerome, | |
| They came from Ukhbar’s palace dome, | 30 |
| They dragg’d me forth from thee, my home, | |
| Karaman! | |
| Thee, my own, my mountain home, | |
| Karaman! | |
| In life and death, my spirit’s home, | 35 |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| |
| O none of all my sisters ten, | |
| Karaman! | |
| Loved like me my fellow-men, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | 40 |
| I was mild as milk till then, | |
| I was soft as silk till then; | |
| Now my breast is as a den, | |
| Karaman! | |
| Foul with blood and bones of men, | 45 |
| Karaman! | |
| With blood and bones of slaughter’d men, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| |
| My boyhood’s feelings newly born, | |
| Karaman! | 50 |
| Wither’d like young flowers uptorn, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| And in their stead sprang weed and thorn; | |
| What once I loved now moves my scorn: | |
| My burning eyes are dried to horn, | 55 |
| Karaman! | |
| I hate the blessèd light of morn, | |
| Karaman! | |
| It maddens me, the face of morn, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | 60 |
| |
| The Spahi wears a tyrant’s chains, | |
| Karaman! | |
| But bondage worse than this remains, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| His heart is black with million stains: | 65 |
| Thereon, as on Kaf’s blasted plains, | |
| Shall nevermore fall dews and rains, | |
| Karaman! | |
| Save poison-dews and bloody rains, | |
| Karaman! | 70 |
| Hell’s poison-dews and bloody rains, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| |
| But life at worst must end ere long, | |
| Karaman! | |
| Azrael avengeth every wrong, | 75 |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| Of late my thoughts rove more among | |
| Thy fields; o’ershadowing fancies throng | |
| My mind, and texts of bodeful song, | |
| Karaman! | 80 |
| Azrael is terrible and strong, | |
| Karaman! | |
| His lightning sword smites all ere long, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| |
| There ’s care to-night in Ukhbar’s halls, | 85 |
| Karaman! | |
| There ’s hope, too, for his trodden thralls, | |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| What lights flash red along yon walls? | |
| Hark! hark! the muster-trumpet calls! | 90 |
| I see the sheen of spears and shawls, | |
| Karaman! | |
| The foe! the foe!—they scale the walls, | |
| Karaman! | |
| To-night Muràd or Ukhbar falls, | 95 |
| Karaman, O Karaman! | |
| |
