If you had been where I have been
in the strange land accursed,
And you had seen what I have seen,
You would not laugh at love.
I went to a distant land
in search of love.
That wasteland in the West
the thing around her waist!
Like rose
Like honey-dipped rose.
Her aura claimed my nose.
Red all through to its petal-tips.
I coveted the curve of her mouth,
The scent of her breath
and the red of her lips.
Just one look at her supple skin
and my compass pointed thus.
If you had done what I have done
I became her drummer boy -
You would know why I coo like the hummingbird
troubled, terrified and thrilled by ecstasy.
Stars blink in futility in the dark of the night,
for her beauty denied them their shine.
Even birds seal their lips, sit and watch me sing
for love,
it refined my voice
Melody reigned in my words.
Her smile, the glow
Oh no!
The light of the moon
and rays of the sun in tune.
History
Stale tales
The rose is dead
It came from the West.
My noon is dark
It died in her nest.
The birds are gone dumb
They miss my merry song.
Every night I howl at the moon
Am I now a fool?
And love that made once sound magical
is silent like a broken flute.
Hey East!
Why laugh at me?
Profound anguish sits in my heart
Why laugh at me?
Are my lips so comically formed
that my sighs and cries
sound like beautiful music?
The world is full of weeping eyes.
My world - weeping eyes
dropping tears on waters that still weep.
If you had been where I have been
in the strange land accursed,
And you had seen what I have seen,
You would not laugh at love.