Then women enter whose red lips and dazzling teeth
    Seduce the eye;
    But meek and virtuous, trained in every art;
    Fit sharers of play-time,
    So soft their flesh and delicate their bones. 
    O Soul come back and let them ease your woe!

    Then enter other ladies with laughing lips
    And sidelong glances under moth-eye brows;
    Whose cheeks are fresh and red;
    Ladies both great of heart and long of limb,
    Whose beauty by sobriety is matched. 
    Well-padded cheeks and ears with curving rim,
    High-arching eyebrows, as with compass drawn,
    Great hearts and loving gestures—­all are there;
    Small waists and necks as slender as the clasp
    Of courtiers’ brooches. 
    O Soul come back to those whose tenderness
    Drives angry thoughts away!

    Last enter those
    Whose every action is contrived to please;
    Black-painted eyebrows and white-powdered cheeks. 
    They reek with scent; with their long sleeves they brush
    The faces of the feasters whom they pass,
    Or pluck the coats of those who will not stay. 
    O Soul come back to pleasures of the night!

    A summer-house with spacious rooms
    And a high hall with beams stained red;
    A little closet in the southern wing
    Reached by a private stair. 
    And round the house a covered way should run
    Where horses might be trained. 
    And sometimes riding, sometimes going afoot
    You shall explore, O Soul, the parks of spring;
    Your jewelled axles gleaming in the sun
    And yoke inlaid with gold;
    Or amid orchises and sandal-trees
    Shall walk in the dark woods. 
    O Soul come back and live for these delights!

    Peacocks shall fill your gardens; you shall rear
    The roc and phoenix, and red jungle-fowl,
    Whose cry at dawn assembles river storks
    To join the play of cranes and ibises;
    Where the wild-swan all day
    Pursues the glint of idle king-fishers. 
    O Soul come back to watch the birds in flight!

    He who has found such manifold delights
    Shall feel his cheeks aglow
    And the blood-spirit dancing through his limbs. 
    Stay with me, Soul, and share
    The span of days that happiness will bring;
    See sons and grandsons serving at the Court
    Ennobled and enriched. 
    O Soul come back and bring prosperity
    To house and stock!

    The roads that lead to Ch`u
    Shall teem with travellers as thick as clouds,
    A thousand miles away. 
    For the Five Orders of Nobility
    Shall summon sages to assist the King
    And with godlike discrimination choose
    The wise in council; by their aid to probe
    The hidden discontents of humble men
    And help the lonely poor. 
    O Soul come back and end what we began!