Classic Poem

Market Song A Dramatic Poem)

Oh good passers, stop and buy;
Lend an ear unto our cry;
We have locusts parched and luscious, steeped and sweetened in sweet rain.
We have honey in clay jars,
White and golden as the stars,
And fat Phasion quails in saffron pierced and captured on the plain.

We have cinnamon and myrrh,
And the mountain foxes' far,
We have spikenard, and red resin, and sweet incense at your choice;
We have bdellium, spice and salt,
And e'en Beetis would exalt
All our oils, and leeks, and perfumes, that can make the heart rejoice.

From Sippara and Ashur,
And from redolent Nipur,
We buy melons, kids and cassia, and the sweet surripac milk;
And from Nineveh the grand
We have brought with our own hand
Choicest flour and fruit, and natron, and the sacred violet silk.

We have pretty birds that hum,
We have barley-bread and gum,
We have snouts of boars and badgers and the tender flanks of deer;
From Kutu we led with pains
Many mules with many grains;
We have Eshcol wine in plenty and ripe figs from Calat near.

We sell dewy plants and flowers
To make sweet the sultry hours;
We have herbs that heal diseases, and the oil of the tamar;
We have venoms, drugs and balms,
And the frondage of the palms,
And the produce of great Egypt brought o'er deserts from afar.

Ah, good passer, pause and buy;
Lend an ear unto our cry;
For the gods and for your dwellings, for the beggar, for the beast,
You can find of every kind,
To suit fancy, taste and mind,
For the altars of the temple or the splendor of the feast.

We have clover sweet and fresh
To adorn the young lamb's flesh;
We have lettuce, grapes and madder, and the dainty durramaise;
We have olives fat or sour,
And new lemons packed in flour,
With rare apricots and peaches culled on green Accadian ways.
Then would the wealthy purchase half a booth,
And the thin poor would stealthily approach
And give their last small earning for a leek.English