SONG OF FREEDOM

D. V. Krishna Sastri

Let them laugh if they like,

Why not I do just as I please?

I shall float on the wings of singing birds

And like a star amidst the stars,

Vanish in the sweetness of my songs!

Let them laugh if they like.

Sailing the skies along the clouds,

I shall flash like a lightning,

And fall to the earth as a rain drop.

Let them laugh if they like

I shall play hide and seek

With the friendly moon,

Behind the fleecy cloud;

And shall not descend

From the Heaven to the Earth.

Let them laugh if they like.

With the blowing wind I float

And hiding in the branches of trees,

To their leaves shall I whisper

The secrets of love;

Let them laugh if they like.

Tickling a flower-maid

And singing to another’s delight,

Hobnobbing with a third,

Flirting with a fourth,

I shall flit from bud to bud

To have my fill of honey

Flowing fresh and sweet;

Let them laugh if they like.

I shall be a bird or a little star,

The honeybee or the pretty moon,

A cloud or a lightning strange,

A pretty flower or a tender leaf,

A Song or a mountain rill

The wind or a wave of the sea,

Somewhere, somehow, sometime,

I shall change and vanish.

Let them laugh if they like,

Why not I do just as I please?

(Translated by D. Anjaneyulu)

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