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Ged Fox Folklore: Songs or Stories about Pakistan? (19) RE: Folklore: Songs or Stories about Pakistan? 03 Aug 14


The problem is that old songs in English about Pakistan are almost certain to relate to soldiering in the days of the Raj.

Kipling's "Ballad of East and West" (which is set in Pakistan) might be acceptable, with its message that, while different languages and customs can be barriers, those barriers can be transcended by a common purpose and courage.




They have looked each other between the eyes, and there they found no fault,
They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on leavened bread and salt:
They have taken the Oath of the Brother-in-Blood on fire and fresh-cut sod,
On the hilt and the haft of the Khyber knife, and the Wondrous Names of God.
The Colonel's son he rides the mare and Kamal's boy the dun,
And two have come back to Fort Bukloh where there went forth but one.

And when they drew to the Quarter-Guard, full twenty swords flew clear—
There was not a man but carried his feud with the blood of the mountaineer.
"Ha' done! ha' done!" said the Colonel's son. "Put up the steel at your sides!
Last night ye had struck at a Border thief—to-night 't is a man of the Guides!"


Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the two shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth.


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