Ashurbanipal's Dream

To Puabi

One dark night, as mournful tears were streaming,
In a field I lay and started dreaming,
Dreaming of a love I knew but could not forget.
'T was in the month of May,
Together in that same field we lay,
Joyful at the chance that we had met.

Long hours we lay in serenity;
Wishful that it would last an eternity;
But alas! At last the trumpets blew.
Then she remembered her sacred duty;
A suit of armor soon concealed her beauty.
In a moment, I beheld her royal pride.

Then she was gone, as in a dream;
From my two eyes, tears did stream.
For I feared that we might ne'er meet again.
The last I heard was that in a war she died;
Oh! the countless tears I cried;
Until that fateful night when I lay dreaming,
Dreaming of that love I knew but would not forget.
No! Indeed i would remember,
Long after the hour when I too am dead.