The Song Book of Quong Lee of Limehouse

The Song Book of Quong Lee
Thomas Burke
Buying and Selling The Power of Music The Lamplighter In Reply to an Invitation A Night-Piece A Smile Given In Passing Of a National Cash Register Under a Shining Window Exchange of Compliments A Song of Little Girls Of Shop Windows At the Feast of Lanterns One Service Breeds Another An Offer of a Lodging Of Two Dwellings Concerning English Gambling Of Politicians Of the Great White War At the Time of Clear Weather Parent and Child Of Worship and Conduct Going to Market A Portrait On a Saying of Mencius Dockside Noises Reproof and Approbation The Feast of Go Nien Directions for Making Tea Of Inaccessible Beauty Night and Day Of a Night in War-Time A Love Lesson A Rebuke Upstairs Footsteps Making a Feast The Case of Ho Ling An Upright Man Breaking-Point An English Gentleman
Buying and Selling
Throughout the day I sit behind the counter of my shop And the odours of my country are all about me— Areca nut, and betel leaf, and manioc, Lychee and suey sen, Li-un and dried seaweed, Tchah and sam-shu; And these carry my mind to half-forgotten days When tales were plentiful and care was hard to hold.
All day I sell for trifling sums the wares of my own land, And buy for many cash such things as people wish to sell, That I may sell them again to others, With some profit to myself.
One night a white-skinned damsel came to me And offered, with fair words, something she wished to sell.
Now if I desire a jacket I can buy it with coin, Or barter for it something of my stock. If I desire rice-spirit, that, too, I can buy; And elegant entertainments and delights are all to be had for cash.
But there is one good thing above all precious, That no man may buy. And though I buy readily most things that I desire, This thing that the white maid offered at my own price I would not buy.
The Power of Music
In the little room behind my shop I refresh myself of an evening with my machine-that-sings.
Two songs has my machine-that-sings: And these are 'Hitchy Koo' and 'We don't want to lose you.'