This page features a video of the poem “Authorship”, prescribed under the Karnataka State Syllabus for 8th Standard English Third Language. Along with its summary in three languages and transliterated songs. It serves as a valuable learning resource for students and parents, with each song accompanied by its respective lyrics for easy sing-along. The synchronized lyrics help learners follow and recite the song as it progresses, making memorization and learning by heart easier, more effective, and enjoyable.
Lyrics
English
You say that father writes a lot of books, but what he
Writes I don’t understand.
He was reading to you all the evening, but could you
Really make out what he meant?
What nice stories, mother, you can tell us! Why can’t
Father write like that, I wonder?
Did he never hear from his own mother stories of
Giants and fairies and princesses?
Has he forgotten them all?
Often when he gets late for his bath you have to go
And call him a hundred times.
You wait and keep his dishes warm for him, but he
Goes on writing and forgets.
Father always plays at making books.
If ever I go to play in father’s room, you come and
Call me, “What a naughty child!”
If I make the slightest noise you say, “Don’t you see
That father’s at his work?
What’s the fun of always writing and writing ?
When I take up father’s pen or pencil and write upon
His book just as he does, -a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, - why
Do you get cross with me then, mother?
You never say a word when father writes.
When my father wastes such heaps of paper, mother,
You don’t seem to mind at all.
But if I take only one sheet to make a boat with, you
Say, “Child, how troublesome you are!”
What do you think of father’s spoiling sheets and
Sheets of paper with black marks all over on both sides?
Writes I don’t understand.
He was reading to you all the evening, but could you
Really make out what he meant?
What nice stories, mother, you can tell us! Why can’t
Father write like that, I wonder?
Did he never hear from his own mother stories of
Giants and fairies and princesses?
Has he forgotten them all?
Often when he gets late for his bath you have to go
And call him a hundred times.
You wait and keep his dishes warm for him, but he
Goes on writing and forgets.
Father always plays at making books.
If ever I go to play in father’s room, you come and
Call me, “What a naughty child!”
If I make the slightest noise you say, “Don’t you see
That father’s at his work?
What’s the fun of always writing and writing ?
When I take up father’s pen or pencil and write upon
His book just as he does, -a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, - why
Do you get cross with me then, mother?
You never say a word when father writes.
When my father wastes such heaps of paper, mother,
You don’t seem to mind at all.
But if I take only one sheet to make a boat with, you
Say, “Child, how troublesome you are!”
What do you think of father’s spoiling sheets and
Sheets of paper with black marks all over on both sides?
Summary
The poem presents a child questioning the mother's different attitudes toward the father's writing and the child's own activities. The father writes many books, but the child cannot understand what he writes. The child wonders why the father cannot write the kind of enjoyable stories that the mother tells. The mother protects the father's writing time, but scolds the child even for making a little noise. She also allows the father to use many sheets of paper while complaining when the child uses one sheet to make a boat. The poem humorously presents the child's innocent questions and curiosity about family life.
Author