C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Lamii (Mohammed Ben Osman Ben Ali Nakkash)
Poems from Oriental Languages: The Panegyric of Amrapolas, near Brusa
Translation in Dublin University Magazine
O
Unfurled
Her banner,
And began her
Harmonious race, did Nature grace, did Fancy trace,
Elsewhere a place
So redolent of all delight
For sight
And soul as
Amrapolas!
Praised be her dales, her nightingales, her verdurous vales!
Praised be her gales,
Loaded with spicy perfumes rare;
Her fair
Mild evens,
Her blue heavens,
And those rich beams, like diamond-gleams, that light her streams,
Which poet’s dreams
Of Paradise itself were faint
To paint
Elysian
As that vision!
Praised be her bright bland lakes of light, her noble night,
Begemmed and dight
With stilly hosts of traveling stars
In cars
All glancing
And advancing!
Praised be her dawn, when, night withdrawn, along the lawn
The playful fawn
Bounds with light heart and feet to meet
And greet
Day’s dun light
Ere the sunlight
Gilds wave and shore and dances o’er the emerald floor
Of earth once more!
Praised be her soil, and hers alone!
I own
None other
For my Mother!
And oh! when drest in Death’s pale vest, may Lamii rest
On her soft breast!