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The 35th Battalion
Retreat
page 131
Retreat
- The hush that comes with twilight's peace, steals o'er the valley's breast,
- The mystic shades are softer now, on Je Jehari's crest,
- With twisted trunks like tortured ghosts, the grey niaoulis stand,
- Amidst the pale lantana tufts, that crouch on either hand.
- The hush that comes with twilight's peace, steals o'er the valley's breast,
- When after day's long-suffered hour, the sun 'Scourged land see\s rest,
- And tremolo cicada song is trilling to the night,
- E'er playful comes the will o-wisp with wayward dancing light.
- Then suddenly, like thunder, rolls the bolder beat of drums,
- Arresting all, and dominant, the great crescendo comes,
- And as the rain precedes the storm, with measured noble beat,
- As once they skirled 'mid Scotland's hills, the bagpipes sound retreat.
- 'Tis mem'ry's hour, and we recall those silent men who lie,
- Up where the teeming jungles rot, beneath a tortured sky;
- No words of ours can voice our thoughts; our tongues are stricken dumb,
- They speak for us, and weep for us, the bagpipe and the drum.
—Alasdair.
Isa Lei
(The words of this famous song are given here to help many of the old hands who know the tune but not the words).
Isa, isa, vulagi lasa dina,
Nomu lako au sana rarawa kina,
Ava beka koya mai cakava,
Nomo lako au na sega ni lasa.
Chorus
Isa lei—Nanoqu rarawa,
Miko sana vodo e na mataka,
Bau nonuma, na nodatau lasa,
Mai Suva, nonuma tikonga.