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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  The Return after Absence

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.

Turkestan: Bokhara

The Return after Absence

By John Leyden (1775–1811)

OH the breeze of the mountain is soothing and sweet,

Warm breathing of love, and the friends we shall meet;

And the rocks of the desert, so rough when we roam,

Seem soft, soft as silk, on the dear path of home;

The white waves of the Jeikon, that foam through their speed,

Seem scarcely to reach to the girth of my steed.

Rejoice, O Bokhara, and flourish for aye!

Thy King comes to meet thee, and long shall he stay.

Our King is our moon, and Bokhara our skies,

Where soon that fair light of the heavens shall arise,

Bokhara our orchard, the cypress our king,

In Bokhara’s fair orchard soon destined to spring.