Shall I then sing of Carthage, my home town?
Shall I then sing of the place I once knew?
Shall I then sing, O home, O love, of you
Before the waves arrived to gravely drown?

Shall I sing of the city young and fair,
Perfume wafting and singing everywhere,
Songbirds in spring in choirs within the trees,
While blew refreshingly the morning breeze?

O home, O love, O place where once I dwelt,
O fane sacred and holy where I knelt,
To vow I'd serve always the town I love,
To beg always from you the aid above,

Now they whisper to me how you are lost,
O city fair, now harried and storm tossed,
O home beset by foes as bees abuzz,
Armies of Rome beseige the home that was.

Before the walls that once were so splendous,
Glitter the spears of Rome's arms enormous.
Hunger and tears within your shrine, Tanit.
O destiny, how cruel you are to meet.

I shall not stride through streets trampled by war.
And shall I gaze at you my home no more?
So, may I see the place that once I saw.
When wonder reigned without this later flaw.

O tears today in Tanit's sacred fane,
How can you begin to try to explain
How the gods allowed what has come to be?
How past beauty bacame reality?

So, traveller, keep still and hold your speech.
With this fervent prayer I beg and beseech.
Allow an aging man at least to dream
That he may still behold the sun agleam.

O verdant trees arrayed in spring attire,
O flowers blooming, birds warbling desire,
You are the view before my spirit's eye.
You are the view I'll carry till I die.

What song, O bard, is sadder than the tale
Of blooming roses beginning to fail?
Of nightengales warbling, now silent, still?
What heart can bear to hear destiny's will?

O my city, where nevermore I'll tread,
O traveller say not Carthage is dead.
One day I was a boy happy at play.
Always I'll see the beauty of that day.

O beauty that was at the dawn of days,
O freshness that came with the splendid morn,
O delicate fragrance as spring was born,
Let an old man see you now and always.

Michael McKenny April 22, 1983 written between about 1:00 and 1:50
in the morning after I awoke from the dream that suggested it.

 
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