| |
| WHERE are we going? where are we going, | |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | |
| Lord of peoples, lord of lands, | |
| Look across these shining sands, | |
| Through the furnace of the noon. | 5 |
| Through the white light of the moon, | |
| Strong the Ghiblee wind is blowing, | |
| Strange and large the world is growing! | |
| Speak and tell us where we are going, | |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | 10 |
| |
| Bornou land was rich and good, | |
| Wells of water, fields of food, | |
| Dourra fields, and bloom of bean, | |
| And the palm-tree cool and green: | |
| Bornou land we see no longer, | 15 |
| Here we thirst and here we hunger, | |
| Here the Moor-man smites in anger: | |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | |
| |
| When we went from Bornou land, | |
| We were like the leaves and sand, | 20 |
| We were many, we are few; | |
| Life has one, and death has two: | |
| Whiten’d bones our path are showing. | |
| Thou All-seeing, thou All-knowing! | |
| Hear us, tell us, where are we going, | 25 |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | |
| |
| Moons of marches from our eyes | |
| Bornou land behind us lies; | |
| Stranger round us day by day | |
| Bends the desert circle grey; | 30 |
| Wild the waves of sand are flowing, | |
| Hot the winds above them blowing,— | |
| Lord of all things! where are we going? | |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | |
| |
| We are weak, but Thou art strong; | 35 |
| Short our lives, but Thine is long; | |
| We are blind, but Thou hast eyes; | |
| We are fools, but Thou art wise! | |
| Thou, our morrow’s pathway knowing | |
| Through the strange world round us growing, | 40 |
| Hear us, tell us where are we going? | |
| Where are we going, Rubee? | |
| |
