Seven castles float high on the mast
Latin sails rime with the River of Pearls
The sound of the harpsichord echoes on cobbled streets

Memories of the Malacca strait's pirates are drowned in rice wine
Comrades lost in Manchuria become poems
Promises to a Goan lover flow to the paper

Bearded faces long for the Nagazaki galleons
Long noses dive in old letters from Lisbon
Hardened fingers draw beasts on the remotest corners of maps

Old men roll dices on malodorous docks
Filled with the rumours of the empire
While junks carry secrets to the other bank

Confucius lies on a prostitute's table
While she cooks with Javanese spices
A meal for a university cleric

Olive eyes melt into almond eyes
Iberian songs gain Cantonese accents
Europe blossoms into Asia

M.Daedalus