REPLY
D. V. Krishna Sastry (1897-1980)
(These are the lines written by the poet. The country is now celebrating the centenary of this great poet who was a convalescing in a Bombay nursing home, after a surgical operation, in which he lost his voice)
/Ed.
I open my eyes to greet
the first rays (of the Sun) in red and gold,
That enter my room
and touch my eyelids.
Faintly do I smile
when the soft breeze of Dawn
Strokes my face
With its finger - tips
I reply with a nod
To the fragrance of the
fresh-born flower
That lecknos from the backyard.
But when from the Mango bough
Leaning towards my Window
Calls the cuckoo
I have no voice, to Reply
No more voice to Reply
(Rendered from the
Telugu original by D. Anjaneyulu)