Читать книгу The Complete Poetical Works of Rudyard Kipling (570+ Poems in One Edition) - Редьярд Джозеф Киплинг - Страница 22

Table of Contents

Argument.—The Indian Government being minded to discover the economic

condition of their lands, sent a Committee to inquire into it; and saw that it

was good.

Scene.—The wooded heights of Simla. The Incarnation of

the Government of India in the raiment of the Angel of Plenty

sings, to pianoforte accompaniment:—

"How sweet is the shepherd's sweet life!

From the dawn to the even he strays—

And his tongue shall be filled with praise.

(adagio dim.) Filled with praise!"

(largendo con sp.) Now this is the position,

Go make an inquisition

Into their real condition

As swiftly as ye may.

(p) Ay, paint our swarthy billions

The richest of vermillions

Ere two well-led cotillions

Have danced themselves away.

Turkish Patrol, as able and intelligent Investigators wind

down the Himalayas:—

What is the state of the Nation? What is its occupation?

Hi! get along, get along, get along—lend us the information!

(dim.) Census the byle and the yabu—capture a first-class Babu,

Set him to file Gazetteers—Gazetteers...

(ff) What is the state of the Nation, etc., etc.

Interlude, from Nowhere in Particular, to stringed and Oriental

instruments.

Our cattle reel beneath the yoke they bear—

The earth is iron and the skies are brass—

And faint with fervour of the flaming air

The languid hours pass.

The well is dry beneath the village tree—

The young wheat withers ere it reach a span,

And belts of blinding sand show cruelly

Where once the river ran.

Pray, brothers, pray, but to no earthly King—

Lift up your hands above the blighted grain,

Look westward—if they please, the Gods shall bring

Their mercy with the rain.

Look westward—bears the blue no brown cloud-bank?

Nay, it is written—wherefore should we fly?

On our own field and by our cattle's flank

Lie down, lie down to die!

Semi-Chorus

By the plumed heads of Kings

Waving high,

Where the tall corn springs

O'er the dead.

If they rust or rot we die,

If they ripen we are fed.

Very mighty is the power of our Kings!

Triumphal return to Simla of the Investigators, attired after

the manner of Dionysus, leading a pet tiger-cub in wreaths

of rhubarb-leaves, symbolical of India under medical treatment.

They sing:—

We have seen, we have written—behold it, the proof of our manifold toil!

In their hosts they assembled and told it—the tale of the Sons of the Soil.

We have said of the Sickness—"Where is it?"—and of Death—"It is far from

our ken,"—

We have paid a particular visit to the affluent children of men.

We have trodden the mart and the well-curb—we have stooped to the field and

the byre;

And the King may the forces of Hell curb for the People have all they desire!

Castanets and step-dance:—

Oh, the dom and the mag and the thakur and the thag,

And the nat and the brinjaree,

And the bunnia and the ryot are as happy and as quiet

And as plump as they can be!

Yes, the jain and the jat in his stucco-fronted hut,

And the bounding bazugar,

By the favour of the King, are as fat as anything,

They are—they are—they are!

Recitative, Government of India, with white satin wings and electro-plated

harp:—

How beautiful upon the Mountains—in peace reclining,

Thus to be assured that our people are unanimously dining.

And though there are places not so blessed as others in natural advantages,

which, after all, was only to be expected,

Proud and glad are we to congratulate you upon the work you have thus ably

effected.

(Cres.) How be-ewtiful upon the Mountains!

Hired Band, brasses only, full chorus:—

God bless the Squire

And all his rich relations

Who teach us poor people

We eat our proper rations—

We eat our proper rations,

In spite of inundations,

Malarial exhalations,

And casual starvations,

We have, we have, they say we have—

We have our proper rations!

Chorus of the Crystallised Facts

Before the beginning of years

There came to the rule of the State

Men with a pair of shears,

Men with an Estimate—

Strachey with Muir for leaven,

Lytton with locks that fell,

Ripon fooling with Heaven,

And Temple riding like H—ll!

And the bigots took in hand

Cess and the falling of rain,

And the measure of sifted sand

The dealer puts in the grain—

Imports by land and sea,

To uttermost decimal worth,

And registration—free—

In the houses of death and of birth.

And fashioned with pens and paper,

And fashioned in black and white,

With Life for a flickering taper

And Death for a blazing light—

With the Armed and the Civil Power,

That his strength might endure for a span—

From Adam's Bridge to Peshawur,

The Much Administered Man.

In the towns of the North and the East,

They gathered as unto rule,

They bade him starve his priest

And send his children to school.

Railways and roads they wrought,

For the needs of the soil within;

A time to squabble in court,

A time to bear and to grin.

And gave him peace in his ways,

Jails—and Police to fight,

Justice—at length of days,

And Right—and Might in the Right.

His speech is of mortgaged bedding,

On his kine he borrows yet,

At his heart is his daughter's wedding,

In his eye foreknowledge of debt.

He eats and hath indigestion,

He toils and he may not stop;

His life is a long-drawn question

Between a crop and a crop.