a land and a time far hence

British India                                                              

        To

       Rudyard Kipling

       by

  

          Henry Jean-Marie Levet 

trans.  Kirby Olson

The offices close at four o’clock in Calcutta;
In the palace park the tennis court stirs;
In Eden Park grinds the spicy music of the sepoys;
The brilliant carriages salute each other on Red Road...

On his throne of gold, sparkling with rubies and emeralds,
His highness the Maharajah of Kapurthala
Longs for Liane de Pougy and Cléo de Mérode
Their autographed photos nearby...

— Benares, squatting, dreams along its stretch of the river;
The Brahmin, candid, tired of his trials, sits
In lively repose amidst the perfumed abstraction...

— At Lahore, 120 degrees Fahrenheit,
The doctors Grant and Perry play cricket, —
Railroads crawl through the sunlit jungle...
























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