Darzee’s Chant

      (Sung in honor of Rikki-tikki-tavi)

 

     Singer and tailor am I—

        Doubled the joys that I know—

     Proud of my lilt to the sky,

        Proud of the house that I sew—

     Over and under, so weave I my music—so weave I the house that I

        sew.

 

     Sing to your fledglings again,

        Mother, oh lift up your head!

     Evil that plagued us is slain¹,

        Death in the garden lies dead.

     Terror that hid in the roses is impotent—flung on the dung-hill

     and dead!

 

     Who has delivered us, who?

        Tell me his nest and his name.

     Rikki, the valiant², the true,

        Tikki, with eyeballs of flame,

     Rikk-tikki-tikki, the ivory-fanged, the hunter with eyeballs of

     flame!

 

     Give him the Thanks of the Birds,

        Bowing with tail feathers spread!

     Praise him with nightingale words—

        Nay³, I will praise him instead.

     Hear!  I will sing you the praise of the bottle-tailed Rikki, with

     eyeballs of red!

 

     (Here Rikki-tikki interrupted, and the rest of the song is

     lost.)

 

1 slain   

杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词)

参考例句：

• The soldiers slain in the battle were burried that night. 在那天夜晚埋葬了在战斗中牺牲了的战士。
• His boy was dead, slain by the hand of the false Amulius. 他的儿子被奸诈的阿缪利乌斯杀死了。

2 valiant   

adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人

参考例句：

• He had the fame of being very valiant.他的勇敢是出名的。
• Despite valiant efforts by the finance minister,inflation rose to 36%.尽管财政部部长采取了一系列果决措施，通货膨胀率还是涨到了36%。

3 nay   

adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者

参考例句：

• He was grateful for and proud of his son's remarkable,nay,unique performance.他为儿子出色的，不，应该是独一无二的表演心怀感激和骄傲。
• Long essays,nay,whole books have been written on this.许多长篇大论的文章，不，应该说是整部整部的书都是关于这件事的。