| |
| “BRING me soft song,” said Aladdin; | |
| “This tailor-shop sings not at all. | |
| Chant me a word of the twilight, | |
| Of roses that mourn in the fall. | |
| Bring me a song like hashish | 5 |
| That will comfort the stale and the sad, | |
| For I would be mending my spirit, | |
| Forgetting these days that are bad: | |
| Forgetting companions too shallow, | |
| Their quarrels and arguments thin; | 10 |
| Forgetting the shouting muezzin.” | |
| “I am your slave,” said the Jinn. | |
| |
| “Bring me old wines,” said Aladdin, | |
| “I have been a starved pauper too long. | |
| Serve them in vessels of jade and of shell, | 15 |
| Serve them with fruit and with song: | |
| Wines of pre-Adamite Sultans | |
| Digged from beneath the black seas, | |
| New-gathered dew from the heavens | |
| Dripped down from heaven’s sweet trees, | 20 |
| Cups from the angels’ pale tables | |
| That will make me both handsome and wise; | |
| For I have beheld her, the Princess— | |
| Firelight and starlight her eyes! | |
| Pauper I am—I would woo her. | 25 |
| And .… let me drink wine to begin, | |
| Though the Koran expressly forbids it.” | |
| “I am your slave,” said the Jinn. | |
| |
| “Plan me a dome,” said Aladdin, | |
| “That is drawn like the dawn of the moon, | 30 |
| When the sphere seems to rest on the mountains | |
| Half-hidden, yet full-risen soon. | |
| Build me a dome,” said Aladdin, | |
| “That shall cause all young lovers to sigh— | |
| The fulness of Life and of Beauty, | 35 |
| Peace beyond peace to the eye; | |
| A palace of foam and of opal— | |
| Pure moonlight without and within, | |
| Where I may enthrone my sweet lady.” | |
| “I am your slave,” said the Jinn. | 40 |
| |
