“Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.
Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.
Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!
Contributed by Bartleby - 2012/2/9 - 11:45
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Musica per voce e pianoforte della compositrice inglese Betty Roe, 1993.
Con Gethsemane e A Dead Statesman, un’altra poesia di Kipling dedicata alla prima guerra mondiale e, in particolare, al figlio John, ucciso a diciott’anni nel 1915 nel corso delle prime fasi della battaglia di Loos, nel Nord-Pas-de-Calais francese.
Il corpo di John Kipling fu ritrovato solo nel 1992 in una sepoltura comune e la definitiva certezza che quei resti fossero proprio del figlio del grande scrittore inglese si è avuto solo nel 2010, quasi cento anni dopo l’orribile morte che, come tanti, trovò in quella terribile battaglia…