Aido Ma Pilukul Karanne Lyrics by Bro. Charles Thomas

Why is it that you loathe me?..
why do you not wish for me, the unborn?..

You cradle kittens upon your lap,
you feed your dear dogs,
giving them taste and comfort in plenty,
yet you did not give even the light of the world to me…

Drunk on the wine of desire as you please,
content, alone, with your gambling,
in the hour drowned in waste and ruin,
why, my dear, will you not look upon your child?…

Waving all your jewelled ornaments,
feasting more and more on rich foods,
building great mansions up to the sky,
why, in all of that, am I unwanted?…

This is a pro-life hymn, and it takes the unusual and piercing approach of giving a voice to the unborn child, who sings the whole song. Its opening question is quiet and heartbreaking: “why is it that you loathe me? why do you not wish for me, the unborn?” The child does not accuse in anger so much as ask, bewildered, why it was not wanted.

The comparisons it draws are deliberately painful. “You cradle kittens upon your lap, you feed your dear dogs, giving them taste and comfort in plenty, yet you did not give even the light of the world to me.” The child sees animals cherished and cared for, and cannot understand why it alone, of everything in the household, was denied the one gift of being born, “the light of the world.” The song holds up the ordinary tenderness people show their pets against the life that was refused.

The later verses widen the picture to a life full of everything except room for the child, “drunk on the wine of desire,” lost in “gambling,” “waving jewelled ornaments,” “feasting on rich foods,” “building great mansions up to the sky.” Amid all that abundance, the child’s plaintive refrain repeats, “why, in all of that, am I unwanted?” It is a hymn with a clear moral conviction, mourning a life not allowed to begin, and it leaves the listener with the sorrowful question of the unborn: in a world with room for so much, why was there no room for me?