AN OLD SONG

So long as through the whirling smoke
We hear the oft-told tale:-
'Twelve hundred in the Lotteries,'
And Whatshername for sale?
If you love me as I love you
We'll play the game and win it too.

So long as Lust or Lucre tempt
Straight riders from the course,
So long as with each drink we pour
Black brewage of Remorse,
So long as those unloaded guns
We keep beside the bed,
Blow off, by obvious accident,
The lucky owner's head,

If you love me as I love you

What can Life kill or Death undo?

So long as Death 'twixt dance and dance
Chills best and bravest blood
And drops the reckless rider down
The rotten, rain-soaked khud,
So long as rumours from the North
Make loving wives afraid,
So long as Burma takes the boy
And typhoid kills the maid,

If you love me as I love you

What knife can cut our love in two?

By all that lights our daily life

Or works our lifelong woe,

From Boileaugunge to Simla Downs,
And those grim glades below,

Where heedless of the flying hoof
And clamour overhead,

Sleep, with the gray langur for guard,
Our very scornful Dead,

If you love me as I love you
All Earth is servant to us two!

By Docket, Billet-doux, and File,
By Mountain, Cliff, and Fir,
By Fan and Sword and Office-box,
By Corset, Plume, and Spur,
By Riot, Revel, Waltz, and War,
By Women, Work, and Bills,
By all the life that fizzes in
The everlasting Hills,

If you love me as I love you
What pair so happy as we two?

CERTAIN MAXIMS OF HAFIZ

1

*F It be pleasant to look on, stalled in the packed serai, Does not the Young Man try Its temper and pace

ere he buy?

If She be pleasant to look on, what does the Young Man say? 'Lo! She is pleasant to look on, give Her to me to-day!'

2

Yea, though a Kafir die, to him is remitted Jehannum If he borrowed in life from a native at sixty per cent per annum.

3

Blister we not for bursati? So when the heart is vext, The pain of one maiden's refusal is drowned in the pain of the next.

4

The temper of chums, the love of your wife, and a new piano's tune

Which of the three will you trust at the end of an Indian June?

5

Who are the rulers of Ind-to whom shall we bow the knee? Make your peace with the women, and men will make

you L. G.

6

Does the woodpecker flit round the young ferash? Does grass clothe a new-built wall?

Is she under thirty the woman who holds a boy in her thrall?

7

If She grow suddenly gracious-reflect. Is it all for thee?

The blackbuck is stalked through the bullock, and Man through jealousy.

8

Seek not for favour of women. So shall you find it indeed.

Does not the boar break cover just when you're lighting a weed?

9

If He play, being young and unskilful, for shekels of silver and gold,

Take His money, my son, praising Allah. The kid was ordained to be sold.

10

With a 'weed' among men or horses verily this is the best,

That you work him in office or dog-cart lightly-but give him no rest.

11

Pleasant the snaffle of Courtship, improving the manners and carriage;

But the colt who is wise will abstain from the terrible thorn-bit of Marriage.

CERTAIN MAXIMS OF HAFIZ

12

As the thriftless gold of the babul so is the gold that we spend

On a Derby Sweep, or our neighbour's wife, or the horse that we buy from a friend.

13

The ways of man with a maid be strange, yet simple and tame

To the ways of a man with a horse, when selling or racing that same.

14

In public Her face turneth to thee, and pleasant Her smile when ye meet.

It is ill. The cold rocks of El-Gidar smile thus on the waves at their feet.

In public Her face is averted, with anger She nameth thy name.

It is well.

Was there ever a loser content with the loss of the game?

15

If She have spoken a word, remember thy lips are sealed, And the Brand of the Dog is upon him by whom is the secret revealed.

If She have written a letter, delay not an instant but burn it.

Tear it in pieces, O Fool, and the wind to her mate shall return it!

If there be trouble to Herward, and a lie of the blackest

can clear,

Lie, while thy lips can move or a man is alive to hear.