Stars of the Desert/Korean Song

by Laurence Hope

 

 

Korean Song

 

"Ah, paddle not thou afar from shore
Where the Great Stream meets the sea,
The River Pirates will snatch thy gold
And beat out thy life from thee."
"But thine eyes, my Beloved, thine eyes,
Have they no peril for me?"

"Ah, go not down to the dens by night
Where they sell thee poppied dreams,
Like evil eyes, through the spiral smoke,
The lighted opium gleams."
"What of thine eyes, oh, my Beloved,
Have they no alluring beams?"

"Ah, stray not where last year's Lotus stalks
Are gripped in the frozen mere,
The treacherous ice is over thin."
"It is not the ice I fear,
But thine eyes, my Beloved, thine eyes,
So dangerous and so dear!"