The Project Gutenberg EBook of India's Love Lyrics, by

Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (AKA Laurence Hope), et al.

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Title: India's Love Lyrics

Author: Adela Florence Cory Nicolson (AKA Laurence Hope), et al.

Release Date: July 29, 2009 [EBook #8197]

Last Updated: February 4, 2013

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIA'S LOVE LYRICS ***

Produced by Gordon Keener, and David Widger

INDIA'S LOVE LYRICS

By Laurence Hope, et al.

Editorial note: Laurence Hope was the pen name of Adela Florence Cory Nicolson. Born in 1865, she was educated in England. At age 16 she joined her father in India, where she spent most of her adult life. In 1889 she married Col. Malcolm H. Nicolson, a man twice her age. She committed suicide two months after his death in 1904.

CONTENTS

Less than the Dust

To the Unattainable

In the Early, Pearly Morning:

Reverie of Mahomed Akram at the Tamarind Tank

Verses

Song of Khan Zada

The Teak Forest

Valgovind's Boat Song

Kashmiri Song by Juma

Zira: in Captivity

Marriage Thoughts: by Morsellin Khan

To the Unattainable:

Mahomed Akram's Appeal to the Stars

Reminiscence of Mahomed Akram

Story by Lalla-ji, the Priest

Request

Story of Udaipore:

Valgovind's Song in the Spring

Youth

When Love is Over

Golden Eyes

Kotri, by the River

Farewell

Afridi Love

Yasmini

Ojira, to Her Lover

Thoughts: Mahomed Akram

Prayer

The Aloe

Memory

The First Lover

Khan Zada's Song on the Hillside

Deserted Gipsy's Song: Hillside Camp

The Plains

Lost Delight

Unforgotten

Song of Faiz Ulla

Story of Lilavanti

The Garden by the Bridge

Fate Knows no Tears

Verses: Faiz Ulla

Two Songs by Sitara, of Kashmir

Palm Trees by the Sea

Song by Gulbaz

Kashmiri Song

Reverie of Ormuz the Persian

Sunstroke

Adoration

Three Songs of Zahir-u-Din

The Regret of the Ranee in the Hall of Peacocks

Protest: By Zahir-u-Din

Famine Song

The Window Overlooking the Harbour

Back to the Border

Reverie: Zahir-u-Din

Sea Song

To the Hills!

Till I Wake

His Rubies: Told by Valgovind

Song of Taj Mahomed

The Garden of Kama:

Camp Follower's Song, Gomal River

Song of the Colours: by Taj Mahomed

Lalila, to the Ferengi Lover

On the City Wall

Love Lightly

No Rival Like the Past

Verse by Taj Mahomed

Lines by Taj Mahomed

There is no Breeze to Cool the Heat of Love

Malay Song

The Temple Dancing Girl

Hira-Singh's Farewell to Burmah

Starlight

Sampan Song

Song of the Devoted Slave

The Singer

Malaria

Fancy

Feroza

This Month the Almonds Bloom at Kandahar

Less than the Dust

   Less than the dust, beneath thy Chariot wheel,

   Less than the rust, that never stained thy Sword,

   Less than the trust thou hast in me, O Lord,

                                Even less than these!

   Less than the weed, that grows beside thy door,

   Less than the speed of hours spent far from thee,

   Less than the need thou hast in life of me.

                                Even less am I.

   Since I, O Lord, am nothing unto thee,

   See here thy Sword, I make it keen and bright,

   Love's last reward, Death, comes to me to-night,

                                Farewell,  Zahir-u-din.

To the Unattainable

   Oh, that my blood were water, thou athirst,

   And thou and I in some far Desert land,

   How would I shed it gladly, if but first

   It touched thy lips, before it reached the sand.

   Once,—Ah, the Gods were good to me,—I threw

   Myself upon a poison snake, that crept

   Where my Beloved—a lesser love we knew

   Than this which now consumes me wholly—slept.

   But thou; Alas, what can I do for thee?

   By Fate, and thine own beauty, set above

   The need of all or any aid from me,

   Too high for service, as too far for love.

In the Early, Pearly Morning:

   Song by Valgovind

   The fields are full of Poppies, and the skies are very blue,

   By the Temple in the coppice, I wait, Beloved, for you.

   The level land is sunny, and the errant air is gay,

   With scent of rose and honey; will you come to me to-day?

   From carven walls above me, smile lovers; many a pair.

   Oh, take this rose and love me! she has twined it in her hair.

   He advances, she retreating, pursues and holds her fast,

   The sculptor left them meeting, in a close embrace at last.

   Through centuries together, in the carven stone they lie,

   In the glow of golden weather, and endless azure sky.

   Oh, that we, who have for pleasure so short and scant a stay,

   Should waste our summer leisure; will you come to me to-day?

   The Temple bells are ringing, for the marriage month has come.

   I hear the women singing, and the throbbing of the drum.

   And when the song is failing, or the drums a moment mute,

   The weirdly wistful wailing of the melancholy flute.

   Little life has got to offer, and little man to lose,

   Since to-day Fate deigns to proffer, Oh wherefore, then, refuse

   To take this transient hour, in the dusky Temple gloom

   While the poppies are in flower, and the mangoe trees abloom.

   And if Fate remember later, and come to claim her due,

   What sorrow will be greater than the Joy I had with you?

   For to-day, lit by your laughter, between the crushing years,

   I will chance, in the hereafter, eternities of tears.

Reverie of Mahomed Akram at the Tamarind Tank

   The Desert is parched in the burning sun

   And the grass is scorched and white.

   But the sand is passed, and the march is done,

   We are camping here to-night.

        I sit in the shade of the Temple walls,

        While the cadenced water evenly falls,

        And a peacock out of the Jungle calls

        To another, on yonder tomb.

       Above, half seen, in the lofty gloom,

       Strange works of a long dead people loom,

   Obscene and savage and half effaced—

   An elephant hunt, a musicians' feast—

   And curious matings of man and beast;

   What did they mean to the men who are long since dust?

        Whose fingers traced,

        In this arid waste,

   These rioting, twisted, figures of love and lust.

   Strange, weird things that no man may say,

   Things Humanity hides away;—

        Secretly done,—

   Catch the light of the living day,

        Smile in the sun.

   Cruel things that man may not name,

   Naked here, without fear or shame,

        Laughed in the carven stone.

   Deep in the Temple's innermost Shrine is set,

       Where the bats and shadows dwell,

   The worn and ancient Symbol of Life, at rest

       In its oval shell,

   By which the men, who, of old, the land possessed,

   Represented their Great Destroying Power.

        I cannot forget

   That, just as my life was touching its fullest flower,

   Love came and destroyed it all in a single hour,

        Therefore the dual Mystery suits me well.

                           Sitting alone,

   The tank's deep water is cool and sweet,

   Soothing and fresh to the wayworn feet,

           Dreaming, under the Tamarind shade,

           One silently thanks the men who made

   So green a place in this bitter land

                Of sunburnt sand.

   The peacocks scream and the grey Doves coo,

   Little green, talkative Parrots woo,

   And small grey Squirrels, with fear askance,

   At alien me, in their furtive glance,

   Come shyly, with quivering fur, to see

   The stranger under their Tamarind tree.

          Daylight dies,

   The Camp fires redden like angry eyes,

          The Tents show white,

           In the glimmering light,

   Spirals of tremulous smoke arise, to the purple skies,

         And the hum of the Camp sounds like the sea,

     Drifting over the sand to me.

          Afar, in the Desert some wild voice sings

          To a jangling zither with minor strings,