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Rudyard Kipling - Christmas in IndiaRudyard Kipling - Christmas in India
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Dim dawn behind the tamerisks the sky is saffron-yellow  As the women in the village grind the corn, And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow  That the Day, the staring Easter Day is born.    Oh the white dust on the highway! Oh the stenches in the byway!      Oh the clammy fog that hovers    And at Home they`re making merry `neath the white and scarlet berry      What part have India`s exiles in their mirth? Full day begind the tamarisks the sky is blue and staring  As the cattle crawl afield beneath the yoke, And they bear One o`er the field-path, who is past all hope or caring,  To the ghat below the curling wreaths of smoke.    Call on Rama, going slowly, as ye bear a brother lowly      Call on Rama he may hear, perhaps, your voice!    With our hymn-books and our psalters we appeal to other altars,      And to-day we bid "good Christian men rejoice!" High noon behind the tamarisks the sun is hot above us  As at Home the Christmas Day is breaking wan. They will drink our healths at dinner those who tell us how they love us,  And forget us till another year be gone!    Oh the toil that knows no breaking! Oh the Heimweh, ceaseless, aching!      Oh the black dividing Sea and alien Plain!    Youth was cheap wherefore we sold it.      Gold was good we hoped to hold it,    And to-day we know the foulness of our gain. Grey dusk behind the tamarisks the parrots fly together  As the sun is sinking slowly over Home; And his last ray seems to mock us shackled in a lifelong tether.  That drags us back how`er so far we roam.    Hard her service, poor her payment she is ancient, tattered raiment      India, she the grim Stepmother of our kind.    If a year of life be lent her, if her temple`s shrine we enter,      The door is hut we may not look behind. Black night behind the tamarisks the owls begin their chorus  As the conches from the temple scream and bray. With the fruitless years behind us, and the hopeless years before us,  Let us honor, O my brother, Christmas Day!    Call a truce, then, to our labors let us feast with friends and neighbors,      And be merry as the custom of our caste;    For if "faint and forced the laughter," and if sadness follow after,      We are richer by one mocking Christmas past.
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