Classic Poem

Palaces and far pavilions
Beam upon the night.
(My soul resumes the thread of her ancient dream.)

Ages ago,
There was dancing and wine
In many a summer palace by the sea:
A swift kiss and a tinkle of anklets of gold,
Where now the poppy flares unaffrighted by the sun,
And the dandelion shatters its greyish globe of seeds.
(My soul is weaving faded tapestries.)

Long afterwards,
There were the musk-paved gardens that you loved,
And fair halls faintly jingling with jade bells.
But the swift feet of the dancer
Still passed as through the centuries forgotten,
Still beat and hesitated not at all.
(Long, long is the thread of my dream.)

But now to-night,
I see the lights of far-off palaces.
Beyond them is the desert filled with ruins.
There are many stories I have long forgotten,
For within those palaces every night a dancer
Dances, and they beam upon the night.
(My soul resumes the thread of her ancient dream.)