Through Gobiland's sea of sand,
Where pilgrim bones are mile-stones,
Where no birds sing, no beasts run,
Where there is only sun and sun,
Went Fa-Hien.

He was faring, a monk of Han,
Out through the desert, past Khotan;
Through hot winds and demon sands,
That haunted the way in swirling bands,
He was going to Buddha lands,
Was Fa-Hien.

His camel was chosen at Changgan,
His place was bought in the caravan.
" All is maya , a dream of man,"
He said as the desert sea began,
And said it again as the hot sea ran,
Did Fa-Hien.

For the air was thirst, the sun desire,
And his blood became a passion fire.
He saw cool waves and soft-limbed slaves,
As only a man can see who craves.
" From woman nothing truly saves,"
Thought Fa-Hien.

But soon they vanished, one and all,
When he had reached Khotan's sure wall.
For stealing from its mystic calm
He thought he felt Lord Buddha's " Om"
Laid on him like a spirit balm,
Did Fa-Hien.

So on, through perilous Hindu Kush,
Down to the Indus did he push,
Down rocky steeps, wild and hilly,
To where the Ganges flows stilly,
For he was fain of the Lotus-lily, —
Fa-Hien.

Yes, fain in the place of Buddha's birth
To find the Way of Priceless Worth,
In Kohana to reach Nirvana
And take back thence some secret manna —
For it is here, surely here,
Mused Fa-Hien.

And so, ten years, of monk and sage
He questioned, scanning the sutras' page;
And miracle — and magic too
He wandered through and pondered through,
Till spent he said, " No Creed will do,"
Did Fa-Hien.

Then old light through him sifted back,
And life no more was maya -black.
" Nirvana's far from all who preach it;
But the world's near and I can reach it;
Give to me then what's good for men,"
Said Fa-Hien.

So forth he sailed from Ganges' mouth
To that fair emerald in the South,
To far Ceylon, and thence fared on,
Through desert seas, past night and dawn, —
His camel a ship by the winds drawn,
Did Fa-Hien.

And back to the tawny Yang-tze came,
Where life was teeming ever the same.
And when his junk, with the tide drunk,
Was moored, he said, " I'm still a monk,
But I am a man who trusts time's plans,
I, Fa-Hien."