Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? / Oh, where have you been, my darling young one? / I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains / I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways / I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests / I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans / I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard / And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard / And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son? / Oh, what did you see, my darling young one? / I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it / I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it / I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’ / I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’ / I saw a white ladder all covered with water / I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken / I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children / And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard / And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son? / And what did you hear, my darling young one? / I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’ / Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world / Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’ / Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’ / Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’ / Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter / Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley / And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard / And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son? / Who did you meet, my darling young one? / I met a young child beside a dead pony / I met a white man who walked a black dog / I met a young woman whose body was burning / I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow / I met one man who was wounded in love / I met another man who was wounded with hatred / And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard / It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son? / Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one? / I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’ / I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest / Where the people are many and their hands are all empty / Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters / Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison / Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden / Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten / Where black is the color, where none is the number / And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it / And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it / Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’ / But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’ / And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard / It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

[By Bob Dylan © Warner Bros. Inc., 1963 / Special Rider Music, 1991]