An Argument

BY MASTI VENKATESA IYENGAR

(An English version of the Author’s Kannada poem)

1

Sometimes my mind misgives me and I ask

If you exist:

Sometimes when, in the important single task

Of bringing grist

To the great mill-wheel of life’s mere being

Ever grinding on,

The mind has lost its native skill of seeing,

All vision gone.

2

You do exist; of course; whence thought of you

If you did not?

I know that all that ever comes to view

Within the grot

Or distant corner of the mind, great, good,

Is certain true.

Naught noble, great, or beautiful that I would,

But will, in you.

3

You are. I am. O Great beyond all speech,

Or what man’s dreams

In their far weary winging ever shall reach,

Behind what seems

You are; eternal, endless, unbegun;

We, worst and best,

Shall in the end, our tasks undone or done,

In thee rest.

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