Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
The White Elephant
By Heinrich Heine (17971856)G
Has half of India under his wing;
Twelve kings, with the Great Mogul, obey
His rule, and acknowledge his sovereign sway.
To Siam the trains with the tribute come;
Many thousand camels, with backs piled high
With the costliest treasures of earth, draw nigh.
The soul of the king in secret smiles;
But in public in truth he always deplores
That his storehouses serve not to hold all his stores.
So full of magnificence, so capacious,
The reality’s splendor surpasses in glory
The Arabian Nights’ most wondrous story.
In which are displayed the deities all,
The golden images, chiselled with care,
And all incrusted with jewels so rare.
Their ugliness passes description far;
A compound of men and animals dread,
With many a hand and many a head.
Some thirteen hundred coral trees,
As big as palms, a singular sight,
With spiral branches, a forest bright.
And all the trees are in it displayed,
While pheasants of glittering plumage gay
Strut up and down in a dignified way.
A ribbon of silk wears round his throat,
Whence hangs the key that opens the hall
Which people the “Chamber of Slumber” call.
All over the ground here scattered lie
Like common peas, with diamonds rare,
That in size with the egg of a fowl compare.
The monarch is wont to stretch himself here;
The ape lies down by the monarch proud,
And both of them slumber and snore aloud.
His happiness, his soul’s first pleasure,
The joy and the pride of Mahawasant
Is truly his snow-white elephant.
A splendid palace the king has erected;
Gay lotos-headed columns uphold
Its roof, all covered with plates of gold.
As the elephant’s guard of honor to wait;
And kneeling down with low-bent back
There serve him a hundred eunuchs black.
On golden dishes they bring him to eat;
From silver buckets he drinks his wine,
Well seasoned with spices sweet and fine.
On his head a chaplet of flowers reposes,
The richest shawls that are made in the East
As carpets serve for the dignified beast.