Rudyard Kipling

Oh the road to Mandalay

Where the flyin'-fishes play

An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer

China 'crost the Bay!

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,

There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;

For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:

“Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!”

When first under fire an' you're wishful to duck,

Don't look nor take 'eed at the man that is struck,

Be thankful you're livin', and trust to your luck

And march to your front like a soldier.

Front, front, front like a soldier...

If your officer's dead and the sergeants look white,

Remember it's ruin to run from a fight:

So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,

And wait for supports like a soldier.

Wait, wait, wait like a soldier...

I've taken my fun where I've found it,

An' now I must pay for my fun,

For the more you 'ave known o' the others

The less will you settle to one.

But he couldn't lie if you paid him and he'd starve before he stole.

'E's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive

An' 'e's generally shammin' when 'e's dead.

India, as everyone knows, is divided equally between jungle, tigers, cobras, cholera, and sepoys

So 'ere's to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;

You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man.

For the colonel's lady an' Judy O'Grady,

Are sisters under their skins.

They've taken of his buttons off an' cut his stripes away,

An' they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin'.

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains

An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

So-oldier of the Queen!