Boy, let yon[A] liquid ruby flow, And bid thy pensive heart be glad, Whate’er the frowning zealots say: Tell them their Eden cannot show A stream so clear as Rocnabad, A bow’r so sweet as Moselláy. Oh! when these fair, perfidious maids, Whose eyes our secret haunts infest, Their dear destructive charms display, Each glance my tender breast invades, And robs my wounded soul of rest, As Tartars seize their destin’d prey. In vain with love our bosoms glow; Can all our tears, can all our sighs New lustre to those charms impart? Can cheeks, where living roses blow, Where nature spreads her richest dies, Require the borrow’d gloss of art? Speak not of fate—ah! change the theme, And talk of odours, talk of wine, Talk of the flow’rs that round us bloom: ’Tis all a cloud, ’tis all a dream; To love and joy thy thoughts confine, Nor hope to pierce the sacred gloom. Beauty has such resistless pow’r, That ev’n the chaste Egyptian dame [B] Sigh’d for the blooming Hebrew boy: For her how fatal was the hour, When to the banks of Nilus came [C] A youth so lovely and so coy! But ah! sweet maid, my counsel hear, (Youth shall attend when those advise Whom long experience renders sage); While music charms the ravish’d ear, While sparkling cups delight our eyes Be gay; and scorn the frowns of age. What cruel answer I have heard! And yet, by heav’n, I love thee still: Can aught be cruel from thy lip? Yet say, how fell that bitter word From lips which streams of sweetness fill, Which nought but drops of honey sip? Go boldly forth, my simple lay, Whose accents flow with artless ease, Like orient pearls at random strung; Thy notes are sweet, the damsels say, But oh, far sweeter, if they please The nymph for whom these notes are sung! ----- Footnote A: A _melted ruby_ is a common periphrasis for wine in the Persian poetry. See Hafiz, ode 22. Footnote B: Zoleikha, Potiphar’s wife. Footnote C: Joseph. -----