HOPE

D. V. KRISHNA SASTRI

Why the sparkle on

the waves of welling tears?

And the sweet fragrance

in the sighs of pain?

And why the flash of lightning

in the fearsome rumbling

of the giant cloud of gloom

At the crack of Doom?

Why the rain of life

in the thunderbolt of death?

And the nectar celestial

In Halahala, the poison lethal?

Why the twinkling star

in the raven tresses

of chill Winter’s night

dense with the darkest of clouds?

Why the sprout in the decay of fall

and the birth of a blossom

in the heap of boulders?

And why that strange smile

on the fiery fangs

in the pale and shrunken face

of ugly Death distorted by hunger?

(Rendered from the Telugu original by D. ANJANEYULU)

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