JAMES ELROY FLECKER 1884-1915

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THE GOLDEN ROAD TO SAMARKAND

HASSAN - Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells,

 When shadows pass gigantic on the sand,

And softly through the silence beat the bells

 Along the Golden Road to Samarkand.

ISHAK - We travel not for trafficking alone;

 By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:

For lust of knowing what should not be known

 We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

MASTER OF THE CARAVAN - Open the gate, O watchman of the night!

THE WATCHMAN -  Ho, travellers, I open. For what land

Leave you the dim-moon city of delight?

MERCHANTS (with a shout) - We take the Golden Road to Samarkand!

(The Caravan passes through the gate)

THE WATCHMAN (consoling the women) - What would ye, ladies? It was ever thus.

 Men are unwise and curiously planned.

A WOMAN - They have their dreams, and do not think of us.

VOICES OF THE CARAVAN (in the distance singing) - 

 We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

James Elroy Flecker was an English poet, novelist and playwright. On his death at the age of thirty, he was described as "unquestionably the greatest premature loss that English literature has suffered since the death of Keats".

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