Song from Lala Rookh by Thomas Moore

Kashmir is a dream of loveliness! The ancient poets of India and, Persia wrote of this wondrous land tucked away in the Himalayan 'Range, describing its charms by such names as Kachemire-be-Nazeer" or the "Unequalled," the Garden of Paradise", and the "Emerald set with Pearls: because of its rich, fertile rice fields and pastures, surrounded by the everlasting snows. Francois Bernier who went to Kashmir In 1664 with the royal suite, tells us that on arrival, a bard presented a poem to Aurangzeb, describing the country thus: "The summits of the higher and more distant mountains were clothed resplendently in white, and the minor and more contiguous preserved in perpetual verdure and embellished with stately trees because it was meet that the mistress of the kingdoms of the earth should be crowned with the diadem whose top and rays were diamonds issuing from a base work of emeralds." Those only who have seen Kashmir In the beauty of its seasons can appreciate the truth of these old•time poets, none of whom, however, of any nationality, has ever done justice to this delightful country and immortalized its lakes, flowers, valleys, streams, and fountains as perfectly as Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, did in his famous Rookh," and yet he never went there.

Publisher - Gulshan Books