He realized then: Google Translate could bridge languages, but not lifetimes. It could convert words, but not the weight of them.

The app translated instantly: “நீங்கள் இறப்பதற்கு முன் என்னிடம் என்ன சொன்னீர்கள்?”

He played the audio. It was grammatically correct. Flawless pronunciation. And completely empty.

He almost swiped it away. But then he saw the second line, a random example sentence the app had auto-generated:

“The mango tree behind the school is gone. I cried. In Tamil, we have sixteen words for crying. In English, only one. My son knows none of them.”