Arabian song

Trav'ler, cease your amorous dreams

Of houris with their charming eyes;

The simoon already is lifting

Hot sand-clouds in the distance gray.

Oh! fly the hot breath of the desert;

Camel-drivers, hasten away;

For Elim has a dozen fountains

And full seventy lofty palms.

Zorah, it was whisper'd, had stolen

From the gazelle her lovely eyes,

And her voice from the dove so gentle,

Dark and long was her well-kept hair,

Each one would like to be her slave,

But no one there could capture her heart.

For Elim has a dozen fountains

And full seventy lofty palms.

From a land that was very distant

Came a knight, handsome, tall, one day;

And her heart, hitherto so frigid,

Quickly beat when she looked at him.

The breeze o'er the plains gently blowing,

At night in their ears softly said:

For Elim has a dozen fountains

And full seventy lofty palms.