Poised for another stroke, terribly, slowly, smiled,
Saying: "O stranger, red, red are my lips, and sweet
Unto those lips so red are the kisses of the dead:
Far hast thou wandered, far, for the kisses of Thamar."
Then a deep silence fell on the frenzy and the laughter;
The leaping dancers crept to the shadows where they had slept,
And the mute eunuchs stood forth, and hugely bent
Above my body, spent in its pool of blood,
And hove me with black arms, while the queen followed after
With stealthy steps, and eyes that burned into the night