In the Paddy Fields

10/31/09

 

I saw sorrow clinging to an aged face,

The spirit captive in an earthly frame

In the heat, humidity and monsoon rain;

The poor like burdened beasts beneath the blow

At labour in the sodden paddy fields,

Their life-song spent and even more, the pain

Of souls that never felt the hand of grace

Uplift misfortune, break the grip of fate,

Return to harmony discordant life,

The soul to beauty and the heart to bliss.