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THE WAIL La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| Here we meet, we three, at length, | |
| Amrah, Osman, Perizad: | |
| Shorn of all our grace and strength, | |
| Poor, and old, and very sad. | 5 |
| We have lived, but live no more; | |
| Life has lost its gloss for us, | |
| Since the days we spent of yore | |
| Boating down the Bosphorus! | |
| La’ laha, il Allah! | 10 |
| The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! | |
| Old time brought home no loss for us; | |
| We felt full of health and heart | |
| Upon the foamy Bosphorus! | |
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| La’ laha, il Allah! | 15 |
| Days indeed! A shepherd’s tent | |
| Served us then for house and fold; | |
| All to whom we gave or lent, | |
| Paid us back a thousandfold. | |
| Troublous years, by myriads wail’d, | 20 |
| Rarely had a cross for us, | |
| Never, when we gaily sail’d | |
| Singing down the Bosphorus. | |
| La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! | 25 |
| There never came a cross for us, | |
| While we daily, gaily sail’d | |
| Adown the meadowy Bosphorus. | |
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| La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| Blithe as birds we flew along, | 30 |
| Laugh’d and quaff’d and stared about; | |
| Wine and roses, mirth and song, | |
| Were what most we cared about. | |
| Fame we left for quacks to seek, | |
| Gold was dust and dross for us, | 35 |
| While we lived from week to week | |
| Boating down the Bosphorus. | |
| La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! | |
| And gold was dust and dross for us, | 40 |
| While we lived from week to week | |
| Boating down the Bosphorus. | |
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| La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| Friends we were, and would have shared | |
| Purses, had we twenty full. | 45 |
| If we spent, or if we spared, | |
| Still our funds were plentiful. | |
| Save the hours we pass’d apart, | |
| Time brought home no loss for us; | |
| We felt full of hope and heart | 50 |
| While we clove the Bosphorus. | |
| La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! | |
| For life has lost its gloss for us | |
| Since the days we spent of yore | 55 |
| Upon the pleasant Bosphorus! | |
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| La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| Ah! for youth’s delirious hours, | |
| Man pays well in after-days, | |
| When quenched hopes and palsied powers | 60 |
| Mock his love-and-laughter days. | |
| Thorns and thistles on our path | |
| Took the place of moss for us, | |
| Till false fortune’s tempest-wrath | |
| Drove us from the Bosphorus. | 65 |
| La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! | |
| When thorns took place of moss for us, | |
| Gone was all! Our hearts were graves | |
| Deep, deeper than the Bosphorus. | 70 |
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| La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| Gone is all! In one abyss | |
| Lie health, youth, and merriment! | |
| All we’ve learnt amounts to this: | |
| Life ’s a sad experiment! | 75 |
| What it is we trebly feel | |
| Pondering what it was for us, | |
| When our shallop’s bounding keel | |
| Clove the joyous Bosphorus. | |
| La’ laha, il Allah! | 80 |
| The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! | |
| We wail for what life was for us, | |
| When our shallop’s bounding keel | |
| Clove the joyous Bosphorus! | |
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THE WARNING La’ laha, il Allah! | 85 |
| Pleasure tempts, yet man has none | |
| Save himself t’ accuse, if her | |
| Temptings prove, when all is done, | |
| Lures hung out by Lucifer. | |
| Guard your fire in youth, O friends! | 90 |
| Manhood’s is but phosphorus, | |
| And bad luck attends and ends | |
| Boatings down the Bosphorus! | |
| La’ laha, il Allah! | |
| The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! | 95 |
| Youth’s fire soon wanes to phosphorus, | |
| And slight luck or grace attends | |
| Your boaters down the Bosphorus! | |
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