ORANGE BLOSSOM
by
Sax Rohmer (1921)

Performed by
Bransby Williams

My little Orange Blossom - light of my life
Sleep on tender flower - sleep on!
Hist! - Wu Chang! - Greetings! greetings!
Ha! Wu Chang, long have I waited.
But that my friend would answer to my call
I had not fear. See, old friend, the tea awaits,
It is the famous Pekoe!
Sit! My friend, Wu Chang, Wu Chang, my friend!
I love you for your heart of gold.
Alas! Wu Chang, much water's flown from Honan
To the Yellow Sea since you and I were playmates -
Playmates in the valley where the opium poppies grow.
The tea is to your liking? Then we smoke.
You gaze 'round for my wife?
Ah! The little Orange Blossom. I know you loved her well
For mv sake? Yes, Wu Chang, my friend!
Have Courage! Courage! Heart of gold!
It is the incense that you smell -
The little Orange Blossom's dead!
You start! 'Twas sudden? Yes!
She died at dawn. But let us smoke.
At dawn she lived, Tonight her soul is free.
Her body lies in yonder.
Come! Come! Wu Chang and kiss her. No?
Her red lips smile, her eyes are kind.
So slender is the thread of life, that even I,
Or you, Wu Chang, might die to-night! How pale you grow!
The tea is to your liking? Is the incense so oppressive?
Well, the flowers are fresh. For she, too, was a flower, Wu Chang,
A lily, slender white - so frail a flower - my wife.
My journeys left her much alone.
But when I placed her in your care,
My old and trusted friend Wu Chang,
I deemed her safe, but see!
Your tea grows cold. Drink up!
Her lips were red, her heart was young
How fair she was! and I so far away!
You shudder yet, your brow is wet, nor do you smoke.
Your face is grey, and how you twitch and clutch with clammy fingers.
You thought me safe in far Honan! Yes!
So did the little Orange Blossom! -
Sit!! - Look well into your empty cup -
The same from which your mistress drank at dawn,
Wu Chang - her last! Your whispered vows, each stolen kiss,
All reached my ears!
I heard, I saw, my friend, Wu Chang!
In yonder room, the room where now our little Orange Blossom lies -
I lay, concealed!
No, no! You have no strength to raise your knife!
The poison cup has done its work.
Her lips were sweet? Her arms were soft?
You writhe, and why, your eyes are glazed!
'Twas so with her, at dawn, as 'tis with you to-night
Go sleep in hell - in HELL! my friend, Wu Chang!