O YE who tread the Narrow Way | |
By Tophet-flare to Judgment Day, | |
Be gentle when the heathen pray | |
To Buddha at Kamakura! | |
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To him the Way, the Law, apart, | 5 |
Whom Maya held beneath her heart, | |
Anandas Lord, the Bodhisat, | |
The Buddha of Kamakura. | |
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For though he neither burns nor sees, | |
Nor hears ye thank your Deities, | 10 |
Ye have not sinned with such as these, | |
His children at Kamakura, | |
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Yet spare us still the Western joke | |
When joss-sticks turn to scented smoke | |
The little sins of little folk | 15 |
That worship at Kamakura | |
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The grey-robed, gay-sashed butterflies | |
That flit beneath the Masters eyes. | |
He is beyond the Mysteries | |
But loves them at Kamakura. | 20 |
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And whoso will, from Pride released, | |
Contemning neither creed nor priest, | |
May feel the Soul of all the East | |
About him at Kamakura. | |
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Yea, every tale Ananda heard, | 25 |
Of birth as fish or beast or bird, | |
While yet in lives the Master stirred, | |
The warm wind brings Kamakura. | |
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Till drowsy eyelids seem to see | |
A-flower neath her golden htee | 30 |
The Shwe-Dagon flare easterly | |
From Burmah to Kamakura, | |
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And down the loaded air there comes | |
The thunder of Thibetan drums, | |
And dronedOm mane padme hums 1 | 35 |
A worlds-width from Kamakura. | |
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Yet Brahmans rule Benares still, | |
Buddh-Gayas ruins pit the hill, | |
And beef-fed zealots threaten ill | |
To Buddha and Kamakura. | 40 |
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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? | |
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But when the morning prayer is prayed, | 45 |
Think, ere ye pass to strife and trade, | |
Is God in human image made | |
No nearer than Kamakura? | |