Kublai Khan's Song

Written for: Messer Marco Polo (1954)
Lyric: Harold Adamson & Leo McCarey
Music: Harry Warren
Year: 1954
Original publisher: Four Jays Music Co., Inc.

Verse:

I am very much impressed with Omar Khayyám,
I believe he was the kind of man that I am;
He was never weak and never sentimental,
His philosophy was bold and Oriental.
So, I'll shout it all the way from here to Siam,
That I very much agree with Omar Khayyám.
There are many who would taste the cup of sorrow,
There are some who heed the call of distant drums;
But I say let's live today, forget tomorrow,
For tomorrow is a day that never comes.
So, let's drink the cup of life and let's be gay,
For we only have a little while to stay.
Marco Polo, you're mixed up with things ethereal,
But the things you touch and feel are all material.

Chorus:

A tender grape, a lovely shape,
A suckling roasting on an open fire.
A jug of wine, these things are fine,
They're the things that I admire and desire.
So, I take what I have here before my eyes,
And I wait for no reward in Paradise;
The world is mine when we recline, we three:
A jug of wine, a concubine, and me.