La Gitana

Your hair was full of roses

in the dewfall as we danced,
The sorceress enchanting

and the paladin entranced,
In the starlight as we wove

us in a web of silk and steel,
Immemorial as the marble

in the halls of Boabdil,
In the pleasuance of the roses

with the fountains and the yews,
Where the snowy Sierra soothed

us with the breezes and the dews.
In the starlight as we trembled

from a laugh to a caress,
And the God came warm upon

us in our pagan allegresse.
Was the Baile de la Bona

too seductive?

Did you feel through

the silence and the softness

all the tension of the steel?
For your hair was full of roses,

and my flesh was full of thorns,
And the midnight came upon us

worth a million crazy morns.
Ah! my Gipsy, my Gitana,

my Saliya  were you fain,
For the dance to turn to earnest?

O the sunny land of Spain.
My Gitana, my Saliya,

more delicious than a dove,
With your hair aflame with roses

and your lips alight with love.
Shall I see you,

shall I kiss you once again?

I wander far,
From the sunny land of summer

to the icy Polar Star.
I shall find you,

I shall have you.

I am coming back again,
From the filth and fog to seek you

in the sunny land of Spain.
I shall find you, my Gitana,

my Saliya as of old,
With your hair aflame with roses

and your body gay with gold.
I shall find you, I shall have you,

in the summer and the south,
With our passion in your body

and our love upon your mouth,
With our wonder and our worship

be the world aflame anew.
My Gitana, my Saliya,

I am coming back to you.

(Aleister Crowley)