Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936). Verse: 1885–1918. 1922.

A Song of Kabir

OH, light was the world that he weighed in his hands!

Oh, heavy the tale of his fiefs and his lands!

He has gone from the guddee and put on the shroud,

And departed in guise of bairagi avowed!

Now the white road to Delhi is mat for his feet.

The sal and the kikar must guard him from heat.

His home is the camp, and the waste, and the crowd—

He is seeking the Way as bairagi avowed!

He has looked upon Man, and his eyeballs are clear—

(There was One; there is One, and but One, saith Kabir);

The Red Mist of Doing has thinned to a cloud—

He has taken the Path for bairagi avowed!

To learn and discern of his brother the clod,

Of his brother the brute, and his brother the God,

He has gone from the council and put on the shroud

(“Can ye hear?” saith Kabir), a bairagi avowed!