K'U-Kiang

Because the sun like a Chinese lantern Set in a temple of clouds tonight, I was back in K'u-Kiang!

Because in a temple of dragon clouds, As if with incense misty red, It hung there over the rim of the sea, I was back in a narrow street, Where amber faces pass all day, Going to pay, going to pray, Going the same old human way They have gone for a thousand years, men say, In K'u-Kiang.

And I heard the coolie cry for his fare, I heard the merchant praise his ware Of bronze and porcelain set to snare, In K'u-Kiang! I saw strange streaming signs in black With gold and crimson on their back-- Opiate signs in an opiate street; Where the slip and patter of felt-shod feet Is old as the sun; And the temple door As cool and dark as the night.

And where dim lanterns, swinging there, As a lure to human grief and care, Half reveal and half conceal The ancestral gloom of the gods.

I saw all this with sudden pang, As if by hashish swept or bhang, Because the sun, like a Chinese lantern, Set in a temple of clouds!