| |
| 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 | 5 |
| 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? | 10 |
| |
| 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, | 15 |
| 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? | 20 |
| |
| 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 | 25 |
| 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. | 30 |
| |
| 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 | 35 |
| 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? | 40 |
| |
| 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 | 45 |
| 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? | 50 |
| |
| 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 | 55 |
| 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! | 60 |
| |
| 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, | 65 |
| 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? | 70 |
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