Sob! The rain sobs!
like the sobbing depressed mind
sob by sob it rains.
Hailstones of grief and despair
pour as downpour.
Sorrows descend like torrential rain.
Knitting the torn sleeves of mind,
the fine rain.
My song roots
in this rain that has no end.
A poem, an unbroken thread of
words
and words
and words
pours the rain
flows the song
wet everywhere.
Children in the rain, rainy children search for me;
drenched completely,
soaked in my songs
wet smiles on their lips
the lines that I wrote
rain again
flow again
drop by drop
word by word
threaded through
the song-flow.

Translated from Kannada by Chitra Panikkar with the poet