Departmental Ditties and Barrack Room Ballads

AN OLD SONG

  So long as 'neath the Kalka hills
    The tonga-horn shall ring,
  So long as down the Solon dip
    The hard-held ponies swing,
  So long as Tara Devi sees
    The lights of Simla town,
  So long as Pleasure calls us up,
    Or Duty drives us down,
      If you love me as I love you
      What pair so happy as we two?

  So long as Aces take the King,
    Or backers take the bet,
  So long as debt leads men to wed,
    Or marriage leads to debt,
  So long as little luncheons, Love,
    And scandal hold their vogue,
  While there is sport at Annandale
    Or whisky at Jutogh,
      If you love me as I love you
      What knife can cut our love in two?

  So long as down the rocking floor
    The raving polka spins,
  So long as Kitchen Lancers spur
    The maddened violins,
  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
    Or 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 grey langur for guard
    Our very scornful Dead,
      If you love me as I love you
      All Earth is servant to us two!

  By Docket, Billetdoux, 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?