Chapter 69அதிகாரம் 69 விடுதலை Freedom

When the fetters are cut, the leg walks; and once the leg has walked, even the days in fetters are a dream.

He locked the lock, and the key is in his own hand; the one who locked it does not see the opening.

Though the body is shut in, none can shut in the ocean within it.

He opened the prison door; all those days, the four walls of his cell had been the walls of his country.

The fish caught by the mouth on a hook, even if it slips free, carries the wound of a torn mouth.

A bird raised in a cage stays on, holding to the companionship it grew up with there, though the door of the house stands open.

The cage is the one it was raised in; it is in the house now, and the house door is open.

Though the rope has perished, the mark of its binding is on the skin; though the crop has perished, the print of its root is in the earth.

He lifted off the yoke and set it down; on the ox’s bare shoulder, a new joy past telling.

A leg that has never known a rope cannot know the breadth of the first leap when a bound leg is freed.

The parrot sings in the cage; the one who paid for the cage has never heard its forest voice.