The Years Between. Rudyard KiplingЧитать онлайн книгу.

      Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower,

      Watching what had come upon mankind,

      Showed the Man the Glory and the Power,

      And bade him shape the Kingdom to his mind.

      'All things on Earth your will shall win you'

      ('Twas so their counsel ran)

      'But the Kingdom – the Kingdom is within you,'

      Said the Man's own mind to the Man.

      For time, and some time —

      As it was in the bitter years before,

      So it shall be in the over-sweetened hour —

      That a man's mind is wont to tell him more

      Than Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower.

      The banked oars fell an hundred strong,

      And backed and threshed and ground,

      But bitter was the rowers' song

      As they brought the war-boat round.

      They had no heart for the rally and roar

      That makes the whale-bath smoke —

      When the great blades cleave and hold and leave

      As one on the racing stroke.

      They sang: – 'What reckoning do you keep,

      And steer her by what star,

      If we come unscathed from the Southern deep

      To be wrecked on a Baltic bar?

      'Last night you swore our voyage was done,

      But seaward still we go,

      And you tell us now of a secret vow

      You have made with an open foe!

      'That we must lie off a lightless coast

      And haul and back and veer,

      At the will of the breed that have wronged us most

      For a year and a year and a year!

      'There was never a shame in Christendie

      They laid not to our door —

      And you say we must take the winter sea

      And sail with them once more?

      'Look South! The gale is scarce o'erpast

      That stripped and laid us down,

      When we stood forth but they stood fast

      And prayed to see us drown

      'Our dead they mocked are scarcely cold,

      Our wounds are bleeding yet —

      And you tell us now that our strength is sold

      To help them press for a debt'

      ''Neath all the flags of all mankind

      That use upon the seas,

      Was there no other fleet to find

      That you strike hands with these?

      'Of evil times that men can choose

      On evil fate to fall,

      What brooding Judgment let you loose

      To pick the worst of all?

      'In sight of peace – from the Narrow Seas

      O'er half the world to run —

      With a cheated crew, to league anew

      With the Goth and the shameless Hun!'

      To-day, across our fathers' graves,

      The astonished years reveal

      The remnant of that desperate host

      Which cleansed our East with steel.

      Hail and farewell! We greet you here,

      With tears that none will scorn —

      O Keepers of the House of old,

      Or ever we were born!

      One service more we dare to ask —

      Pray for us, heroes, pray,

      That when Fate lays on us our task

      We do not shame the Day!

      We were all one heart and one race

      When the Abbey trumpets blew.

      For a moment's breathing-space

      We had forgotten you

      Now you return to your honoured place

      Panting to shame us anew.

      We have walked with the Ages dead —

      With our Past alive and ablaze,

      And you bid us pawn our honour for bread;

      This day of all the days!

      And you cannot wait till our guests are sped,

      Or last week's wreath decays?

      The light is still in our eyes

      Of Faith and Gentlehood,

      Of Service and Sacrifice,

      And it does not match our mood,

      To turn so soon to your treacheries

      That starve our land of her food.

      Our ears still carry the sound

      Of our once Imperial seas,

      Exultant after our King was crowned,

      Beneath the sun and the breeze.

      It is too early to have them bound

      Or sold at your decrees.

      Wait till the memory goes,

      Wait till the visions fade,

      We may betray in time, God knows,

      But we would not have it said,

      When you make report to our scornful foes,

      That we kissed as we betrayed!

      The dark eleventh hour

      Draws on and sees us sold

      To every evil power

      We fought against of old.

      Rebellion, rapine, hate,

      Oppression, wrong and greed

      Are loosed to rule our fate,

      By England's act and deed.

      The Faith in which we stand,

      The laws