Sympathy

Original in Telugu by:

Tripuraneni Gopichand

Translator:

GRK Murty

A poet went to his wealthy friend and hesitantly asked him in faltering voice, “No rice at home. It has caused an upheaval. Lend me five rupees.”

“I don’t have even a pie. From where would it come? Would it grow in my backyard? Even otherwise, I cannot give so many times,” said the wealthy man.

“When did you give me?”

“Am I not to give money for making your statue after you die? To give it now and also later when you die—as though I have no other work?” said the rich man.

That night many images appeared in the poet’s dream. As his wife and children were cribbing for food on the one side, on the other side he saw his statue in the making.

People were praising the kind-heartedness and the literary connoisseurship of the wealthy man who donated money for the making of the statue.

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