YES, friend, I own these tales of Arabia <br />Smile not, as smiled their flawless originals, <br />Age-old but yet untamed, for ages <br />Pass and the magic is undiminished. <br /> <br />Thus, friend, the tales of the old Camaralzaman, <br />Ayoub, the Slave of Love, or the Calendars, <br />Blind-eyed and ill-starred royal scions, <br />Charm us in age as they charmed in childhood. <br /> <br />Fair ones, beyond all numerability, <br />Beam from the palace, beam on humanity, <br />Bright-eyed, in truth, yet soul-less houris <br />Offering pleasure and only pleasure. <br /> <br />Thus they, the venal Muses Arabian, <br />Unlike, indeed, the nobler divinities, <br />Greek Gods or old time-honoured muses, <br />Easily proffer unloved caresses. <br /> <br />Lost, lost, the man who mindeth the minstrelsy; <br />Since still, in sandy, glittering pleasances, <br />Cold, stony fruits, gem-like but quite in- <br />Edible, flatter and wholly starve him.<br /><br />Robert Louis Stevenson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tales-of-arabia/
