The Twain Shall Meet

OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!

I was reading up on some classic English poems and stumbled across this piece. It's quite interesting, and I am surprised I've never come across this on account of its strong undercurrent of "brotherly bond" (Which is a milder and more easily stomach version of "homosexual love"). You can find the whole poem by clicking on the title of this blog. The refrain, is given above.

The poem told a story that happened in India during British occupation. The son of a Colonel gave chase to a Border Thief who had stolen a prized horse of his father, but ended up falling into a trap of the opponent. However, instead of being executed, the son of Colonel earned the respect of the Leader, and was bonded to the Leader's eldest son, thereby ending a border feud.

The whole refrain basically pointed out that the bond between two strong men can surmount cultural and status differences. If this is not a poem that celebrate "same-sex relationship", I don't know what is.

If somehow you find a strong sexual connotation in the term "same-sex relationship", please banish that preconception. It doesn't have to be sexual or erotical by nature. Though nothing prevent it to be either.

I think I am missing out on a lot of good literature. Although I still think that chinese poems are more enlightened artform, the western poems have their charm too.