Buddha at Kamakura

‘_And there is a Japanese idol at Kamakura._’


  Oh ye who tread the Narrow Way
    By Tophet-flare to Judgment Day,
  Be gentle when the ‘heathen’ pray
    To Buddha at Kamakura!

  To him the Way, the Law, Apart,
  Whom Maya held beneath her heart,
  Ananda’s Lord the Bodhisat,
    The Buddha of Kamakura.

  For though he neither burns nor sees,
  Nor hears ye thank your Deities,
  Ye have not sinned with such as these,
    His children at Kamakura;

  Yet spare us still the Western joke
  When joss-sticks turn to scented smoke
  The little sins of little folk
    That worship at Kamakura--

  The grey-robed, gay-sashed butterflies
  That flit beneath the Master’s eyes--
  He is beyond the Mysteries
    But loves them at Kamakura.

  And whoso will, from Pride released,
  Contemning neither creed nor priest,
  May feel the soul of all the East
    About him at Kamakura.

  Yea, every tale Ananda heard,
  Of birth as fish or beast or bird,
  While yet in lives the Master stirred,
    The warm wind brings Kamakura.

  Till drowsy eyelids seem to see,
  A-flower ’neath her golden _htee_,
  The Shwe-Dagon flare easterly
    From Burmah to Kamakura;

  And down the loaded air there comes
  The thunder of Thibetan drums,
  And droned--‘_Om mane padme oms_’--
    A world’s width from Kamakura.

  Yet Brahmans rule Benares still,
  Buddh-Gaya’s ruins pit the hill,
  And beef-fed zealots threaten ill
    To Buddha and Kamakura.

  A tourist-show, a legend told,
  A rusting bulk of bronze and gold,
  So much, and scarce so much, ye hold
    The meaning of Kamakura?

  But when the morning prayer is prayed,
  Think, ere ye pass to strife and trade,
  Is God in human image made
    No nearer than Kamakura?




THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN  [Page 94]


  Take up the White Man’s burden--
    Send forth the best ye breed--
  Go bind your sons to exile
    To serve your captives’ need;
  To wait in heavy harness,
    On fluttered folk and wild--
  Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
    Half-devil and half-child.

  Take up the White Man’s burden--
    In patience to abide,
  To veil the threat of terror
    And check the show of pride;
  By open speech and simple,
    An hundred times made plain,
  To seek another’s profit,
    And work another’s gain.

  Take up the White Man’s burden--
    The savage wars of peace--
  Fill full the mouth of Famine
    And bid the sickness cease;
  And when your goal is nearest
    The end for others sought,
  Watch Sloth and heathen Folly
    Bring all your hope to nought.

  Take up the White Man’s burden--
    No tawdry rule of kings,
  But toil of serf and sweeper--
    The tale of common things.
  The ports ye shall not enter,
    The roads ye shall not tread,
  Go make them with your living,
    And mark them with your dead.

  Take up the White Man’s burden--
    And reap his old reward:
  The blame of those ye better,
    The hate of those ye guard--
  The cry of hosts ye humour
    (Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
  ‘Why brought ye us from bondage,
    Our loved Egyptian night?’

  Take up the White Man’s burden--
    Ye dare not stoop to less--
  Nor call too loud on Freedom
    To cloak your weariness;
  By all ye cry or whisper,
    By all ye leave or do,
  The silent, sullen peoples
    Shall weigh your Gods and you.

  Take up the White Man’s burden--
    Have done with childish days--
  The lightly proffered laurel,
    The easy, ungrudged praise.
  Comes now, to search your manhood
    Through all the thankless years,
  Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
    The judgment of your peers!