Crossing the Desert
 from Marco Polo — for Beverley

The desert is said to be               so big
that it takes a year to travel its length;
                                even at the
                narrowest point
                the crossing lasts a lunar month.

The desert is only
                mountains and sand,
                valleys and sand
                and there's nothing, nothing to eat.

But if you travel a day and a night
in winter,
                there is drinking water —
                too little water to quench
                the thirst of a big company,
                but enough
                for a hundred or so men
                and their retinue of animals.

And so, all the way
through the desert
you must travel
a day and a night            
till you find water.

I can tell you that
in three or four places,
                the water is bitter and brack;
                but at the other watering-holes,
twenty-eight in all,
the water's sweet;
though there are
no beasts or birds
because there's nothing to eat.

But I assure you
                that one thing is found there,
a very strange thing,
and this is the truth of it:

When you ride
through the night
of this desert
and you loiter
or doze in the heat
and fall behind
your company
and, coming to,
hurry to catch them
then you hear
spirits talking,
in the voices
of your companions.

Sometimes they seem to call your name,
you leave the path after them,
and don't come back to it.
Or you may hear the clatter
of a cavalcade of riders
luring you from the road;
                and follow them,
                and when day breaks
                find you are
                                the victim of illusion.

There are some who,
travelling in this desert,
have seen a band of men approaching
and fled, suspecting robbers,
and gone helplessly astray.
Even by daylight they hear these spirit voices,
or the strains of many instruments,
especially drums
and the clash of arms.

And this is why
                travellers tend to stay
very close to one another,
and before they go to sleep
they put up signs which point
in the direction they're heading,

and they fasten little bells
round the necks of all their beasts
so that by listening for the sound
they can keep them from straying.

Well, that's how they cross the desert.
All that discomfort!
And now, let's take our leave of it
and talk of what's on the other side.