But with the Dawn she does not go and in the
night-time she is there.

Dawn follows Dawn and Nights grow old and
all the while this curious cat

Lies couching on the Chinese mat with eyes of
satin rimmed with gold.

Upon the mat she lies and leers and on the
tawny throat of her

Flutters the soft and silky fur or ripples to her
pointed ears.

Come forth, my lovely seneschal! so somnolent,
so statuesque!

Come forth you exquisite grotesque! half woman
and half animal!

Come forth my lovely languorous Sphinx! and
put your head upon my knee!

And let me stroke your throat and see your
body spotted like the Lynx!

And let me touch those curving claws of yellow
ivory and grasp

The tail that like a monstrous Asp coils round
your heavy velvet paws!

A thousand weary centuries are thine
while I have hardly seen

Some twenty summers cast their green for
Autumn's gaudy liveries.

But you can read the Hieroglyphs on the
great sandstone obelisks,

And you have talked with Basilisks, and you
have looked on Hippogriffs.

O tell me, were you standing by when Isis to
Osiris knelt?

And did you watch the Egyptian melt her union
for Antony

And drink the jewel-drunken wine and bend
her head in mimic awe

To see the huge proconsul draw the salted tunny
from the brine?

And did you mark the Cyprian kiss white Adon
on his catafalque?

And did you follow Amenalk, the God of
Heliopolis?

And did you talk with Thoth, and did you hear
the moon-horned Io weep?

And know the painted kings who sleep beneath
the wedge-shaped Pyramid?

Lift up your large black satin eyes which are
like cushions where one sinks!

Fawn at my feet, fantastic Sphinx! and sing me
all your memories!

Sing to me of the Jewish maid who wandered
with the Holy Child,

And how you led them through the wild, and
how they slept beneath your shade.

Sing to me of that odorous green eve when
crouching by the marge

You heard from Adrian's gilded barge the
laughter of Antinous

And lapped the stream and fed your drouth and
watched with hot and hungry stare

The ivory body of that rare young slave with
his pomegranate mouth!

Sing to me of the Labyrinth in which the twi-
formed bull was stalled!

Sing to me of the night you crawled across the
temple's granite plinth

When through the purple corridors the screaming
scarlet Ibis flew

In terror, and a horrid dew dripped from the
moaning Mandragores,

And the great torpid crocodile within the tank
shed slimy tears,

And tare the jewels from his ears and staggered
back into the Nile,

And the priests cursed you with shrill psalms as
in your claws you seized their snake

And crept away with it to slake your passion by
the shuddering palms.

Who were your lovers? who were they
who wrestled for you in the dust?

Which was the vessel of your Lust? What
Leman had you, every day?

Did giant Lizards come and crouch before you
on the reedy banks?

Did Gryphons with great metal flanks leap on
you in your trampled couch?

Did monstrous hippopotami come sidling toward
you in the mist?

Did gilt-scaled dragons writhe and twist with
passion as you passed them by?

And from the brick-built Lycian tomb what
horrible Chimera came

With fearful heads and fearful flame to breed
new wonders from your womb?

Or had you shameful secret quests and did
you harry to your home

Some Nereid coiled in amber foam with curious
rock crystal breasts?

Or did you treading through the froth call to
the brown Sidonian

For tidings of Leviathan, Leviathan or
Behemoth?

Or did you when the sun was set climb up the
cactus-covered slope

To meet your swarthy Ethiop whose body was
of polished jet?

Or did you while the earthen skiffs dropped
down the grey Nilotic flats

At twilight and the flickering bats flew round
the temple's triple glyphs

Steal to the border of the bar and swim across
the silent lake

And slink into the vault and make the Pyramid
your lupanar

Till from each black sarcophagus rose up the
painted swathed dead?

Or did you lure unto your bed the ivory-horned
Tragelaphos?

Or did you love the god of flies who plagued
the Hebrews and was splashed

With wine unto the waist? or Pasht, who had
green beryls for her eyes?

Or that young god, the Tyrian, who was more
amorous than the dove

Of Ashtaroth? or did you love the god of the
Assyrian

Whose wings, like strange transparent talc, rose
high above his hawk-faced head,

Painted with silver and with red and ribbed with
rods of Oreichalch?

Or did huge Apis from his car leap down and
lay before your feet

Big blossoms of the honey-sweet and honey-
coloured nenuphar?

How subtle-secret is your smile! Did you
love none then? Nay, I know

Great Ammon was your bedfellow! He lay with
you beside the Nile!

The river-horses in the slime trumpeted when
they saw him come

Odorous with Syrian galbanum and smeared with
spikenard and with thyme.

He came along the river bank like some tall
galley argent-sailed,

He strode across the waters, mailed in beauty,
and the waters sank.

He strode across the desert sand: he reached
the valley where you lay:

He waited till the dawn of day: then touched
your black breasts with his hand.

You kissed his mouth with mouths of flame:
you made the horned god your own:

You stood behind him on his throne: you called
him by his secret name.

You whispered monstrous oracles into the
caverns of his ears:

With blood of goats and blood of steers you
taught him monstrous miracles.

White Ammon was your bedfellow! Your
chamber was the steaming Nile!

And with your curved archaic smile you watched
his passion come and go.

With Syrian oils his brows were bright:
and wide-spread as a tent at noon

His marble limbs made pale the moon and lent
the day a larger light.

His long hair was nine cubits' span and coloured
like that yellow gem

Which hidden in their garment's hem the
merchants bring from Kurdistan.

His face was as the must that lies upon a vat of
new-made wine:

The seas could not insapphirine the perfect azure
of his eyes.

His thick soft throat was white as milk and
threaded with thin veins of blue:

And curious pearls like frozen dew were
broidered on his flowing silk.

On pearl and porphyry pedestalled he was
too bright to look upon:

For on his ivory breast there shone the wondrous
ocean-emerald,

That mysticmoonlit jewel which some diver of
the Colchian caves

Had found beneath the blackening waves and
carried to the Colchian witch.

Before his gilded galiot ran naked vine-wreathed
corybants,

And lines of swaying elephants knelt down to
draw his chariot,

And lines of swarthy Nubians bare up his litter
as he rode

Down the great granite-paven road between the
nodding peacock-fans.

The merchants brought him steatite from Sidon
in their painted ships:

The meanest cup that touched his lips was
fashioned from a chrysolite.

The merchants brought him cedar chests of rich
apparel bound with cords:

His train was borne by Memphian lords: young

• throat [θrəut] n.咽喉；嗓子；出入口 (初中英语单词)
• velvet [´velvit] n.&a.天鹅绒(般的) (初中英语单词)
• standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
• egyptian [i´dʒipʃən] n.埃及人a.埃及的 (初中英语单词)
• stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
• purple [´pə:pl] n.紫色 a.紫(红)的 (初中英语单词)
• terror [´terə] n.恐怖；惊骇 (初中英语单词)
• passion [´pæʃən] n.激情；激怒；恋爱 (初中英语单词)
• vessel [´vesəl] n.容器；船；脉管 (初中英语单词)
• fearful [´fiəfəl] a.可怕的；担心的 (初中英语单词)
• crystal [´kristəl] n.水晶 a.水晶的 (初中英语单词)
• twilight [´twailait] n.黎明；黄昏 (初中英语单词)
• ribbed [ribd] n.呈肋状的；有罗纹的 (初中英语单词)
• valley [´væli] n.谷；河谷；流域 (初中英语单词)
• marble [´mɑ:bəl] n.大理石 a.大理石的 (初中英语单词)
• hidden [´hid(ə)n] hide 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• frozen [´frəuzn] freeze 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• exquisite [ik´skwizit] a.精巧的；敏锐的 (高中英语单词)
• monstrous [´mɔnstrəs] a.怪异的；庞大的 (高中英语单词)
• fantastic [fæn´tæstik] a.奇异的；荒谬的 (高中英语单词)
• jewish [´dʒu:iʃ] a.犹太人(似)的 (高中英语单词)
• granite [´grænit] n.花岗岩 (高中英语单词)
• horrid [´hɔrid] a.令人讨厌的；极糟的 (高中英语单词)
• shrill [ʃril] a.(声音)尖锐的 (高中英语单词)
• crouch [krautʃ] vi.卷缩；蹲伏 (高中英语单词)
• tidings [´taidiŋz] n.消息，音信 (高中英语单词)
• transparent [træns´peərənt] a.透明的；显而易见的 (高中英语单词)
• strode [strəud] stride的过去式 (高中英语单词)
• throne [θrəun] n.宝座；王位 (高中英语单词)
• sandstone [´sændstəun] n.砂岩 (英语四级单词)
• writhe [raið] v.扭曲，扭歪 (英语四级单词)
• shameful [´ʃeimfəl] a.可耻的；猥亵的 (英语四级单词)
• labyrinth [´læbərinθ] 迷宫；错综复杂之事件 (英语六级单词)
• crocodile [´krɔkədail] n.鳄鱼；假慈悲的人 (英语六级单词)
• swarthy [´swɔ:ði] a.黑皮肤的，黝黑的 (英语六级单词)
• earthen [´ə:θən, -ðən] a.泥土做的；大地的 (英语六级单词)
• triple [´tripəl] a.三倍的v.增加到三倍 (英语六级单词)
• syrian [´siriən] a.&n.叙利亚人(的) (英语六级单词)
• mystic [´mistik] a.神秘的；难以理解的 (英语六级单词)
• moonlit [´mu:n,lit] a.月光普照的 (英语六级单词)