| |
| THE WOMAN is mine, O chief, | |
| White chief whom the spirits fear! | |
| The woman is mine, | |
| I have bought her with blood, | |
| My mark is upon her brow. | 5 |
| I swept like a shark the sea, | |
| O lord of unbelief! | |
| I swept with a trusty score to her isle | |
| And brought her home in my prau! | |
| |
| She lay in her atap-thatch, | 10 |
| Clad—ah!—in her red sarong. | |
| The cocoanut palms | |
| In the wind she heard, | |
| But never my paddles near. | |
| I seized her with mating arms— | 15 |
| O chief, no moon is her match!— | |
| She cried to the hunting men of her tribe, | |
| But lo, I carried her clear. | |
| |
| And tossed her across the surf! | |
| O chief, she is mine, not yours!— | 20 |
| I bore her away | |
| Though the pearls of her teeth | |
| Bit deep, and her rage beat blind. | |
| An hundred hissing darts, | |
| Each dipped in a venom’s scurf, | 25 |
| Slid after us like swift asps of air, | |
| But ever they sunk behind. | |
| |
| And so she is mine, twice mine, | |
| For when in the jungle here | |
| I hid her, O lord, | 30 |
| And sang to her heart | |
| And planted the rubber round, | |
| And bought her your rings and silks | |
| And bracelets jewel-fine, | |
| And swept her with kisses like the sea, | 35 |
| At last was her long hate drowned. | |
| |
| And so she is mine, is mine! | |
| White chief, you must give her back. | |
| I bought her with blood, | |
| I will keep her with blood, | 40 |
| So chasten your heart of lust; | |
| Or swift, as you say the night | |
| Of Malaya falls, at a sign, | |
| My people, led by the gods, shall fall, | |
| And make of your passion dust. | 45 |
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