The Golden Road to Samarkand - James Elroy Flecker

THE GOLDEN ROAD TO SAMARKAND

James Elroy Flecker

SCENE II

At the Gate of the Moon, Bagdad. Blazing moonlight.

MERCHANTS, CAMEL-DRIVERS and their beasts, PILGRIMS,

JEWS, WOMEN, all manner of people. By the barred gate stands

the WATCHMAN with a great key. Among the pilgrims, HASSAN

and ISHAK in the robes of pilgrims.

THE MERCHANTS

(Together)

Away, for we are ready to a man!

Our camels sniff the evening and are glad.

Lead on, O Master of the Caravan,

Lead on the Merchant-Princes of Bagdad.

THE CHIEF DRAPER

Have me not Indian carpets dark as wine,

Turbans and sashes, gowns and bows and veils,

And broideries of intricate design,

And printed hangings in enormous bales?

THE CHIEF GROCER

We have rose-candy, we have spikenard,

Mastic and terebinth and oil and spice,

And such sweet jams meticulously jarred

As God's Own Prophet eats in Paradise.

THE PRINCIPAL JEWS:

And we have manuscripts in peacock styles

By Ali of Damascus: we have swords

Engraved with storks and apes and crocodiles,

And heavy beaten necklaces for lords.

THE MASTER OF THE CARAVAN

But you are nothing but a lot of Jews

PRINCIPAL JEW

Sir, even dogs have daylight, and we pay.

MASTER OF THE CARAVAN

But who are ye in rags and rotten shoes,

You dirty-bearded, blocking up the way?

ISHAK

We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go

Always a little further; it may be

Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow

Across that angry or that glimmering sea,

White on a throne or guarded in a cave

There lies a prophet who can understand

Why men were born: but surely we are brave,

Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

THE CHIEF MERCHANTS

We gnaw the nail of hurry. Master, away!

ONE OF THE WOMEN

O turn your eyes to where your children stand.

Is not Bagdad the beautiful? O, stay!

MERCHANTS

(In chorus)

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

AN OLD MAN

Have you not girls and garlands in your homes?

Eunuchs and Syrian boys at your command?

Seek not excess: God hateth him who roams!

MERCHANTS

(In chorus)

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

HASSAN

Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells

When shadows pass gigantic on the sand,

And softly through the silence beat the bells

Along the Golden Road to Samarkand.

ISHAK

We travel not for trafficking alone;

By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:

For lust of knowing what should not be known,

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

MASTER OF THE CARAVAN

Open the gate, O watchman of the night!

THE WATCHMAN

Ho, travellers, I open. For what land

Leave you the dim-moon city of delight?

MERCHANTS

(With a shout)

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand!

(The CARAVAN passes through the gate.)

WATCHMAN

(Consoling the women)

What would ye, ladies? It was ever thus.

Men are unwise and curiously planned.

A WOMAN

They have their dreams, and do not think of us.

(The WATCHMAN closes the gate.)

VOICES OF THE CARAVAN

(In the distance singing)

We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

CURTAIN

_{THis is an extract from Flecker's verse play, Hassan.}

_{http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/119/the-golden-road-to-samarkand.html}

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James Elroy Flecker was a British poet, playwright and novelist. He was born in 1884 in London to the Rev. William and Sarah Flecker. He attended Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Among his achievements are The Golden Journey to Samarkand, Hassan and Don Juan.


His premature death at the age of 31 from tuberculosis was described at the time as "unquestionably the greatest premature loss that English literature has suffered since the death of Keats".


O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,
Student of our sweet English tongue,
Read out my words at night, alone:
I was a poet, I was young.

"To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence" by James Elroy Flecker