I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
I met a young woman whose body was burning
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
And I'll know my song well before I start singin'
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
And who did you meet, my darling young one?
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
Oh, what did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I heard the sound of a thunder, that roared out a warnin'
And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
Where black is the color, where none is the number
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
I met a young child beside a dead pony
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest
And what'll you do now, my darling young one?
Oh, what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
And what did you see, my darling young one?
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
I met one man who was wounded in love
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
I heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
And the executioner's face is always well hidden
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
And I'll tell it and speak it and think it and breathe it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it
I met another man who was wounded in hatred