The Golden Journey to Samarkand

The Golden Journey to Samarkand written by James Elroy Flecker

The Golden Journey to Samarkand (1913)

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PROLOGUE

We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage
And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die,
We Poets of the proud old lineage
Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why,—

What shall we tell you ? Tales, marvellous tales
Of ships and stars and isles where good men rest,
Where nevermore the rose of sunset pales,
And winds and shadows fall toward the West:

And there the world's first huge white-bearded kings
In dim glades sleeping, murmur in their sleep,
And closer round their breasts the ivy clings,
Cutting its pathway slow and red and deep.

II

And how beguile you? Death has no repose
Warmer and deeper than that Orient sand
Which hides the beauty and bright faith of those
Who made the Golden Journey to Samarkand.

And now they wait and whiten peaceably,
Those conquerors, those poets, those so fair:
They know time comes, not only you and I,
But the whole world shall whiten, here or there;

When those long caravans that cross the plain
With dauntless feet and sound of silver bells
Put forth no more for glory or for gain,
Take no more solace from the palm-girt wells.

When the great markets by the sea shut fast
All that calm Sunday that goes on and on:
When even lovers find their peace at last,
And Earth is but a star, that once had shone.


Epilogue

At the Gate of the Sun, Bagdad, in olden time

The Merchants {together)

Away, for we are ready to a man!
Our camels sniff the evening and are glad.
Lead on, Master of the Caravan:
Lead on the Merchant-Princes of Bagdad.

The Chief Draper

Have we not Indian carpets dark as wine,
Turbans and sashes, gowns and bows and veils.
And broideries of intricate design.
And printed hangings in enormous bales?

The Chief Grocer

We have rose-candy, we have spikenard.
Mastic and terebinth and oil and spice,
And such sweet jams meticulously jarred
As God's own Prophet eats in Paradise.

The Principal Jews

And we have manuscripts in peacock styles
By Ali of Damascus; we have swords
Engraved with storks and apes and crocodiles,
And heavy beaten necklaces, for Lords.

The Master of the Caravan

But who are ye in rags and rotten shoes.
You dirty-bearded, blocking up the way?

The Pilgrims

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow,
Across that angry or that glimmering sea,
White on a throne or guarded in a cave
There lives a prophet who can understand
Why men were born: but surely we are brave,
Who make the Golden Journey to Samarkand.

The Chief Merchant

We gnaw the nail of hurry. Master, away!

One of the Women

O turn your eyes to where your children stand.
Is not Bagdad the beautiful? O stay!

The Merchants {in chorus)

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

An Old Man

Have you not girls and garlands in your homes,
Eunuchs and Syrian boys at your command?
Seek not excess: God hateth him who roams!

The Merchants (in chorus)

We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand.

A Pilgrim with a Beautiful Voice

Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells
When shadows pass gigantic on the sand,
And softly through the silence beat the bells
Along the Golden Road to Samarkand.

A Merchant

We travel not for trafficking alone:
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand,

The Master of the Caravan

Open the gate, watchman of the night!

The Watchman

Ho, travellers, I open. For what land
Leave you the dim-moon city of delight?

The Merchants (with a shout)

We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand.

[7he Caravan passes through the gate]

The Watchman (consoling the women)

What would ye, ladies ? It was ever thus.
Men are unwise and curiously planned,

A Woman

They have their dreams, and do not think of us.

Voices of the Caravan (m the distance, singing)

We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand.

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.