Сила есть Право

Вы восстаёте, чтобы заявить о своих несчастьях, а они бьют вас за ваши страданья,
И достают свои смертоносные ружья, чтобы разорвать и размазать ваши мозги,
Они крадут общие земли, они крадут заработанные вами деньги,
Эй! Раболепствуйте перед ними, вы только псы, а не люди.

В сияющих залах они пируют — шлюхи, разбойники и мошенники,
Когда в застенках тюрем томятся в кандалах ваши товарищи-рабы,
Эй! Люди Нового Южного Уэльса, услышьте! Слушайте, как звенят кандалы,
Вы что, мужланы-кастраты, что лишь вопят да пресмыкаются?

Январь, 1893 г.

The Song of Te Kooti / Песня Те Кути[447]

Exult for Te Kooti! Te Kooti the bold;
So fierce in the onset, so dauntless of old,
Whose might was resistless — when battle-wars rolled,
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

The Pakehas came with their rum and their gold,
And soon the broad lands of our fathers were sold,
But the voice of Te Kooti said: 'Hold the land! Hold!
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

They falsely accused him, no trial had he,
They carried him off to an isle in the sea;
But his prison was broken, once more he was free —
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

They tried to enslave us, to trample us down
Like the millions that serve them in field and in town;
But the sapling that's bended when freed will rebound —
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

He plundered their rum stores, he ate up their priests,
He robbed the rich squatters to furnish him feasts —
What fare half so fine as their clover-fed beasts?
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

In the wild midnight foray whose footsteps trod lighter?
In the flash of the rifle whose eyeballs gleamed brighter?
What man with our hero could clinch as a fighter?
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

They say it was murder; but what, then, is war?
When they slaughtered our kin in the flames of the pa,
O darker their deeds and more merciless far!
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

They boast that they'll slay him — they'll shoot him at sight,
But the power that nerves him's a giver of might;
At a glance from his eye they shall tremble with fright —
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

When the darkness was densest he wandered away
To rejoice in the charge of the wild battle-fray;
Now, his limbs they are feeble, his beard it is grey —
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

The Eternal's our father, the land is our mother,
The forest and mountains our sister and brother;
Who'd part with his birthright for gold to another?
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

We won't sell the land — 'tis the gift of the Lord —
Except it be bought with the blood-drinking sword;
But all men are welcome to share in its hoard —
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

Yet 'mid the rejoicing forget not the braves
Who, in glades of forest, have found lonely graves,
Who welcomed cold Death, for they scorned to be slaves —
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!

Exult for Te Kooti, Te Kooti the bold,
So sage in the council, so famous of old,
Whose war-cry's our motto — 'tis 'Hold the land! Hold!
Exult for Te Kooti, yo-hoo!