Into this world they tell me I was sent
Wrapt in a bornoose, which was rudely rent
And flung away, by her who first didst touch
My steaming flesh ; I never loved her much,
The surly, stolid, sordid, spectral hag:
For never would my star of fortune lag —
No dwarf of earth to oppose my will would
dare —
If my sebaceous bornoose she did spare,
And if around my neck, the ajous says.
It hung, locked in a charm, for twenty days.
But ever since the amulet was torn.
The curse of gods and jinn and men I've worn;
And to my flesh it stuck — a Nessus shirt —
Despite the oozing blood, and not spurt
Of power, alas ! is left me to control
The stinging tongue of an avenging soul.