"Kashmiri Song" is a song by Amy Woodforde-Finden based on a poem by Laurence Hope, pseudonym of Adela Florence Nicolson.
The poem first appeared in Hope's first collection of poems, The Garden of Kama (1901), also known as India's Love Lyrics.
The following year, when Amy Woodforde-Finden set to music Four Indian Love Lyrics, "Kashmiri Song" emerged as the most popular, quickly becoming a drawing room standard and remaining popular until the Second World War.
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The poem/song has given rise to many interpretations, many of them associated with themes of forbidden love, sadomasochism, and miscegenation.
The phrase "beside the Shalimar" presumably refers to one of two Shalimar Gardens, the Shalimar Gardens Kashmir or the Shalimar Gardens Lahore. Although the former seems the likelier identification, given the song's title, the fact that Nicolson lived in Lahore gives some weight to the latter.
There have been numerous recordings of the song, including:
The song has led an unusually varied life particularly in the field of popular culture. Some of the places where the song/poem is mentioned or quoted are: