Stars of the Desert/Hamlili, the Sultan of Song

by Laurence Hope

 

 

Hamlili, the Sultan of Song

 

Alas, for the fate of Hamlili,
The slender fanatical singer,
Whose fingers were skilled on the ginbri;
Who played the tears into men's eyes.
Who harped on men's hearts till they quivered
And swayed on the border of madness,
Vibrating and twisting in passion:
Hamlili: the Singer of Sighs:

Hamlili: Beloved in the Soko:
Whose song was as rest to the weary.
As Lips of the Loved to the Lover.
Hamlili: Assuager of Care.
Whose tears clustered thick on his lashes.
As, torn from the heart of the ginbri,
The music, caressive and tender,
Arose in the tremulous air.

They took him, the victim of slander,
And burnt out his eyes in the Kasbah,
They cut off the hand of Hamlili,
The hand that was Lord of the Strings,

Whose slender and delicate fingers,
Persuaded the lute as a lover
Persuadeth the heart of his mistress
To tender and passionate things.

Ah, none will now pause in the Market,
To hear in the twilight of springtime,
When flowers that bloom in the country,
Have scented the heart of the town,
The songs of that Sultan of Singers,
We called the Caresser of Lutestrings,
Who lies in the gloom of the Kasbah,
Whose lute is for ever laid down.