Yea, the hilly river,
Flowing smoothly just with a little water
With the stone boulders
...
Edhar dina dhali rahal cche,
Udhar eka sharmili dulhania
Bailgaadi mei baithik
Jaay rahal cche,
...
Where does the river comes from,
How the course of it,
How the chatter and flow of it
Crossing over the highlands and lowlands?
...
The river,
Where does it come from
And where does it go to
Babbling, murmuring,
...
How did it get lost,
The Saraswati,
The Saraswati river
Losing its track
...
Hidden in the bed of North Kannada District’s Shalmala river,
Lies it the thousand lingas
Carved upon the rocks
Lying in the river bed,
...
There on the river bed of
The Ajay,
Isaw my eldest brother
Burning on the funeral pyre.
...
Under the open skies,
With the moon shining over,
The stars twinkling up above,
I had been,
...
The asthi-kalasha hanging by the old tree
Of the hamlet river,
The small asthi-kalasha
Containing the bodily ashes
...
While been to the hamlet by the river Ajay,
Dark, lightless and impoverished
And held by blind faith,
Reeling under poverty, hunter, illiteracy,
...
O Palar river, Vellore, tell me about the deaths
Away from home,
Far and far away
Of the ones moving in search of life
...
O Boatman, how deep is the river,
How deep the river,
I fear it
To cross the mainstream,
...