Then his trumpeters in the van That the sound together drew. The city and lands are thine; Who shall contend with Fate ?" Anon from the castle walls And the crowd beholds instead, Like a portent in the sky, Iskander's banner fly, The Black Eagle with double head; For men's souls are tired of the Turks, That have made of Ak-Hissar A city of the plague; And the loud, exultant cry That echoes wide and far It was thus Iskander came By the winds of summer, ran, In his Book of the Words of the Days, "Were taken as a man Would take the tip of his ear." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Bosphorus (Straits of Constantinople). ON A YOUNG BRIDE DROWNED IN THE BOSPHORUS. STRANGER! shouldst thou to Thessaly return, Say to my heart's dear lord that here I lie, Here, where the Bosphor's waves are foaming high, And bid him near our bower my name inurn, So to preserve his young bride's memory. Agathias. Tr. W. Peter. THE WAIL AND WARNING OF THE THREE KHALENDEERS. LA' laha, il Allah! Here we meet, we three, at length, Amrah, Osman, Perizad: Shorn of all our grace and strength, Poor, and old, and very sad! The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! Old Time brought home no loss for us. We felt full of health and heart Upon the foamy Bosphorus ! La' laha, il Allah! Days indeed! A shepherd's tent Served us then for house and fold; The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! La' laha, il Allah! Laughed and quaffed and stared about; Wine and roses, mirth and song, Were what most we cared about. Gold was dust and dross for us, The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus ! La' laha, il Allah! Friends we were, and would have shared Purses, had we twenty full. If we spent, or if we spared, Still our funds were plentiful. The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus ! La' laha, il Allah! Thorns and thistles on our path The Bosphorus, the Bosphorus! When thorns took place of moss for us, Gone was all! Our hearts were graves La' laha, il Allah! Gone is all! In one abyss Lie health, youth, and merriment! All we've learned amounts to this, Life's a sad experiment. |