"Kashmiri Song" Leon Kofman (1923) Amy Woodforde-Finden ("Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar")

"Kashmiri Song" is played by Leon Kofman, violinist.

The opening lines of the song might be better known: ""Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar."

Rex Battle provides piano accompaniment.

The music is by Amy Woodforde-Finden. She composed this around 1902, and the song became very popular. Peter Dawson's version is wonderful!

Here are the lyrics to "Kashmiri Song":

Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar [garden].
Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell?
Whom do you lead on Rapture's roadway, far,
Before you agonize them in farewell?

Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar,
Where are you now? Where are you now?

Pale hands, pink tipped, like Lotus buds that float
On those cool waters where we used to dwell,
I would have rather felt you round my throat,
Crushing out life, than waving me farewell!

Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar,
Where are you now? Where lies your spell?

"Shalimar" here probably refers to the famous Mughal garden complex located in Lahore, Pakistan. Pakistan did not exist when the poem was written since it was all British India at one time. The words are by Laurence Hope, the pen name of Adela Florence Nicolson--she in Lahore at one point, so she knew the Shalimar Gardens.

Laurence Hope's poem first appeared in a book titled The Garden of Kama (1901), which was Hope's first book of poems.





"Kashmiri Song" Leon Kofman (1923) Amy Woodforde-Finden ("Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar")
Author: Tim Gracyk
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