Odes 251—2

A CARAVAN from China comes;
For miles it sweetens all the air
With fragrant silks and stealing gums,
Attar and myrrh—
A caravan from China comes.

O merchant, tell me what you bring,
With music sweet of camel-bells;
How long have you been travelling
With these sweet smells?
O merchant, tell me what you bring.

A lovely lady is my freight;
A lock escaped of her long hair:
That is this perfume delicate
That fills the air—
A lovely lady is my freight.

Her face is from another land;
I think she is no mortal maid—
Her beauty, like some ghostly hand,
Makes me afraid;
Her face is from another land.

The little moon my cargo is;
About her neck the Pleiades
Clasp hands and sing; HAFIZ, 't is this
Perfumes the breeze—
The little moon my cargo is.