Upon the rippling desert sands
How silently she stands,
How solemn, how lonely, how serene
As she has ever been.
Daughter of the Sun’s distant youth,
In beauty and in truth,
What peer has she among the fair,
But then, what does she care?
At evening, as the Sun declines,
In warm and supple lines
Of pale vermillion hue;
She is a goddess born anew.
With all the subtleties of shade
And countless colours made,
The light will always caress her,
Seeking to possess her.
And shadow with light will compete;
The two will render her complete.
Their conflict is the fount of her beauty.
Let each perform his duty.
Now, with adoration in her eyes;
That mirror jeweled skies
She bids the fleeting sun farewell
And casts her mystic spell.
Her glowing, golden limbs now take
The tincture of the snake,
The glistening undulations.
O hear her incantations!
Hard coils of tireless muscle glide
Fast up the stoney mountain side
Where even the breezes dare not speak.
Behold the sacred peak!
Her sanctuary far from strife,
Far from chaotic life,
Where, in the stillness of the dawn,
In the fragrance of the morn,
Tranquilly she’ll sleep
And all her arcane secrets keep.
There the silence that she loves
Eternally shall reign.
