the first, and longest, song of the three is in the dark key of e flat minor. it typically lasts ten minutes in performance. it is, in rae's words, "a panorama of oriental fantasy evoking arabia, india and, at a dramatic climax, china." with the continually repeated words "je voudrais voir…" ("i should like to see…" or "i want to see…"), the poet, or his imagined speaker, dreams of escape from quotidian life into a european fantasy of asian enticements. the music increases in intensity as his imaginations become more feverish, until subsiding to end placidly, back in the real world.