Buddha at Kamakura [Kipling poem set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 2013-07-24

This is a lesser known Kipling poem, written in 1892, which I just came across. Kamakura is a Buddhist shrine in Japan, visited by Kipling.

Buddha at Kamakura
1892

"And there is a Japanese idol at Kamakura"
Fmaj7       G6         F           Am7
O ye who tread the Narrow Way
F  Am7   Bb Am7
By Tophet-flare to Judgment Day,
Fmaj7       G6         F           Am7
Be gentle when "the heathen" pray
  F  Am7   Bb Am7
To Buddha at Kamakura!

Dm7 Em Am
To him the Way, the Law, apart,
G F G F G
Whom Maya held beneath her heart,
Dm7 Em Am
Ananda's Lord, the Bodhisat,
F C Dm7 F G
  The Buddha of Kamakura.

For though he neither burns nor sees,    [as per A]
Nor hears ye thank your Deities,
Ye have not sinned with such as these,
  His children at Kamakura,

Yet spare us still the Western joke   [as per B]
When joss-sticks turn to scented smoke
The little sins of little folk
  That worship at Kamakura --

C Am Em G
The grey-robed, gay-sashed butterflies
C Am Em G
That flit beneath the Master's eyes.
C Cam Em G
He is beyond the Mysteries
C Dm7 F G
  But loves them at Kamakura.

And whoso will, from Pride released,     [as per A]
Contemning neither creed nor priest,
May feel the Soul of all the East
  About him at Kamakura.

Yea, every tale Ananda heard,         [as per B]
Of birth as fish or beast or bird,
While yet in lives the Master stirred,
  The warm wind brings Kamakura.

Till drowsy eyelids seem to see       [as per A]
A-flower 'neath her golden htee
The Shwe-Dagon flare easterly
  From Burmah to Kamakura,

And down the loaded air there comes     [as per B]
The thunder of Thibetan drums,
And droned -- "Om mane padme hums" --
  A world's-width from Kamakura.

Yet Brahmans rule Benares still, [as per C]
Buddh-Gaya's ruins pit the hill,
And beef-fed zealots threaten ill
  To Buddha and Kamakura.

Fmaj7   C
A tourist-show, a legend told,
G    Dm7
A rusting bulk of bronze and gold,
Fmaj7   C
So much, and scarce so much, ye hold
  G     Am7
The meaning of Kamakura?

But when the morning prayer is prayed,       [as per B, end on C chord]
Think, ere ye pass to strife and trade,
Is God in human image made
  No nearer than Kamakura?
________________________________________

* Om mane padme hums -- My Heart Opens Like a Lotus Blossom

Fmaj7 = xx3555   G6 = xx5430