GOLDEN EYES

translated into English by: Laurence Hope (1865-1904)

H Amber Eyes, oh Golden Eyes!

Oh Eyes so softly gay!

Wherein swift fancies fall and rise,

Grow dark and fade away.

Eyes like a little limpid pool

That holds a sunset sky,

While on its surface, calm and cool,

Blue water lilies lie.




Oh Tender Eyes, oh Wistful Eyes,

You smiled on me one day,

And all my life, in glad surprise,

Leapt up and pleaded "Stay!"

Alas, oh cruel, starlike eyes,

So grave and yet so gay,

You went to lighten other skies,

Smiled once and passed away.




Oh, you whom I name "Golden Eyes,"

Perhaps I used to know

Your beauty under other skies

In lives lived long ago.

Perhaps I rowed with galley slaves,

Whose labour never ceased,

To bring across Phoenician waves

Your treasure from the East.




Maybe you were an Emperor then

And I a favourite slave;

Some youth, whom from the lions' den

You vainly tried to save!

Maybe I reigned, a mighty King,

The early nations knew,

And you were some slight captive thing,

Some maiden whom I slew.




Perhaps, adrift on desert shores

Beside some shipwrecked prow,

I gladly gave my life for yours.

Would I might give it now!

Or on some sacrificial stone

Strange Gods were satisfied,

Perhaps you stooped and left a throne

To kiss me ere I died.




Perhaps, still further back than this,

In times ere men where men,

You granted me a moment's bliss

In some dark desert den,

When, with your amber eyes alight

With iridescent flame,

And fierce desire for love's delight,

Towards my lair you come.




Ah laughing, ever-brilliant eyes,

These things men may not know,

But something in your radiance lies,

That, centuries ago,

Lit up my life in one wild blaze

Of infinite desire

To revel in your golden rays,

Or in your light expire.




If this, oh Strange Ringed Eyes, be true,

That through all changing lives

This longing love I have for you

Eternally survives,

May I not sometimes dare to dream

In some far time to be

Your softly golden eyes may gleam

Responsively on me?




Ah gentle, subtly changing eyes,

You smiled on me one day,

And all my life in glad surprise

Leaped up, imploring "Stay!"

Alas, alas, oh Golden Eyes,

So cruel and so gay,

You went to shine in other skies,

Smiled once and passed away.