The Secret of the Machines

The Secret of the Machines

-by Rudyard Kipling

1st Stanza

We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,  

Machines are made from the metal that comes from the ores dug out of mines

We were melted in the furnace and the pit—  

The metal is melted in hot furnaces and the pits used to make it liquid

We were cast and wrought and hammered to design,  

The liquid metal is molded and beaten with hammer according to the design

We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit.  

Then the designed part is cut, rubbed, shaped and calculated to fit correctly to make the machine

Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask,

All that the machines need is water, fuel, and lubricating oil

And a thousandth of an inch to give us play:  

The machines can move perfectly even within one-thousandth of an inch

And now, if you will set us to our task,

Once the machine is ready, we can give it some work

We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!

The machines are ready to work for us throughout the day

 

2nd Stanza

We can pull and haul and push and lift and drive,  

The machines can pull, move, push, lift and drive heavy things

We can print and plough and weave and heat and light,

The machines can do jobs like printing books, plowing fields, weaving clothes, heat our things and give us lighting for us

We can run and race and swim and fly and dive,  

Machines can go fast, race, they can work in water, swim, fly and dive underwater

We can see and hear and count and read and write!

The machines can look for us (cameras and scanners), they can listen for us (audio equipment), count (calculators, computers) write (typewriters, computers)

 

3rd Stanza

Would you call a friend from half across the world?

Do you want to call a friend who is very far away?

If you’ll let us have his name and town and state,

All we have to give the machine is his name and address

You shall see and hear your crackling question hurled

We can hear our voice asking a question being sent

Across the arch of heaven while you wait.  

As we wait for the call to be connected our voice goes high in the sky across the globe

Has he answered? Does he need you at his side?

Within seconds, we will know whether he answered our call or whether he needs your help

You can start this very evening if you choose,  

If we want to do it, we can do it this evening itself

And take the Western Ocean in the stride

We can go across the Atlantic Ocean with the help of

Of seventy thousand horses and some screws!

A ship with a propeller having seventy thousand horsepower

 

4th Stanza

The boat-express is waiting for your command!  

the ship is waiting for you

You will find the Mauretania at the quay,

The ship’s name is Mauretania and it is in the harbor

Till her captain turns the lever ’neath his hand,  

It will be there until the captain switches the power on with his hand

And the monstrous nine-decked city goes to sea.

Soon the huge nine-storied ship enters the sea

 

5th Stanza

Do you wish to make the mountains bare their head  

Do we want to dig the mountains?

And lay their new-cut forests at your feet?  

Or do we want to cut forests?

Do you want to turn a river in its bed,

Or do we want to change the course of a river?

Or plant a barren wilderness with wheat?

Or do we want to grow wheat in lands where there are no crops previously

Shall we pipe aloft and bring you water down

Do we want the machines to lift water up to a tank and bring it down in our homes.

From the never-failing cisterns of the snows,  

The water is pumped from storage tanks of ice and snow

To work the mills and tramways in your town,

The machines are ready to run our mills and railways

And irrigate your orchards as it flows?

They are also ready to help us in growing plants and gardens

 

6th Stanza

It is easy! Give us dynamite and drills!

With the help of some dynamite to blast and drill to dig it is easy for machines

Watch the iron-shouldered rocks lie down and quake  

To break strong rocks into pieces

As the thirsty desert-level floods and fills,

The machines can make bring water to deserts

And the valley we have dammed becomes a lake.

They can fill valleys and make them as lakes

 

7th Stanza

But remember, please, the Law by which we live,  

But we have to remember that machines work according to rules

We are not built to comprehend a lie,

Machines cannot understand (no thinking power) and tell lies

We can neither love nor pity nor forgive.

Machines do not know feelings like love, pity, or forgiveness

If you make a slip in handling us you die!  

If we make any mistake in operating machines, it can be dangerous

We are greater than the Peoples or the Kings—

Machines are more powerful than people and kings

Be humble, as you crawl beneath our rods!

We have to be careful when working with the machines

Our touch can alter all created things,

With a single push of a switch, machines can change all the things

We are everything on earth—except The Gods!

Machines can do anybody’s work - they cannot do the work of Gods

 

8th Stanza

Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes,

Machines make a lot of smoke and it makes sun and stars not visible to us

It will vanish and the stars will shine again,

After the pollution is gone, we can see stars again

Because, for all our power and weight and size,  

The machines have great power, they are heavy and they are huge

We are nothing more than children of your brain!

In spite of all this, machines are made by human brains!