"Angutivaun Taina"
by Rudyard Kipling
1125"Angutivaun Taina"Rudyard Kipling

Our gloves are stiff with the frozen blood,
       Our furs with the drifted snow,
As we come in with the seal—the seal!
       In from the edge of the floe.

Au jana! Aua! Oha! Haq!
       And the yelping dog-teams go;
And the long whips crack, and the men come back,
       Back from the edge of the floe!

We tracked our seal to his secret place,
       We heard him scratch below,
We made our mark, and we watched beside,
       Out on the edge of the floe.

We raised our lance when he rose to breathe,
       We drove it downward—so!
And we played him thus, and we killed him thus,
       Out on the edge of the floe.

Our gloves are glued with the frozen blood,
       Our eyes with the drifting snow;
But we come back to our wives again,
       Back from the edge of the floe!

Au jana! Aua! Oha! Haq!
       And the loaded dog-teams go;
And the wives can hear their men come back,
       Back from the edge of the floe!

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 87 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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