Archive for April, 2010
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Yes
I am the Madiga tappeta* which hung on the wall until yesterday
Today
I've come to your street
I won't deny that
until yesterday our homes were the graveyards outside the village
But today
we've built the tombs
of our brothers,
killed by your dark shadows,
right in front of your temples.
And now
the tombs which have sprung up in the middle of your village
need a path
you..move!
I gift you
the space
I left outside the village.
My translation of the Telugu poem 'lE…lErA!' by Ram (from the 1996 collection of Dalit poetry 'padunekkina pATa').
* tappeTa: also called Dappu, a drum used by the Madigas. Read more about it here.
Tags: Ram
Posted in Poetry, Telugu, Translations | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
Sirs!
Weren't we of the superstructure until yesterday
how would we have any base?
Without any foundation
how can there be any structure,
true!
Until now, building everything for you
became our only occupation
leaving us with no building of our own
Sirs!
look at that
marxism, ambedkarism
the ride on twin bullocks has begun
our madiga dappu had turned cold
having drummed the background score for you all this while
today, with reddening eyes it has turned warm again
readying to compose your funeral beat
wasn't it from your blows, sirs,
that we learnt how to retaliate?
The time will come
the time has to come
saved, like the sharpness of a knife,
the resentment so intently saved in our bellies
isn't it only now, sirs-
that it is gathering strength?
We are boycotting your courts
where those who should be in cages
sit on thrones and deliver judgments
the gun might be yours
but the hands that shall press the trigger are ours
we proudly declare!
My translation of the Telugu poem 'meeru koTTina debbala nunchE…' by kO.pra. Found that in a recent collection of poetry by Madiga poets called 'kaitunakala danDem'.
Tags: kO.pra
Posted in Poetry, Telugu, Translations | Comments Off on Wasn’t it from your blows…
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
I do not need your sky
You return my wings you had chopped.
I do not need your bread
You return my hands you had hacked.
I take my own course
I ask you to return my feet.
I am conscious of my duties
I want you to restore my rights.
I want nothing that is yours
Better return what is mine.
By N.T Poghe. Source: Dalit Poetry Today.
Tags: N.T Poghe
Posted in Marathi, Poetry, Translations | Comments Off on Return
Monday, April 12th, 2010
My grandfather,
the starvation death
which occurred during the drought when men were sold
My father,
the migrant life
which left home in search of work to pay off debt
I, in ragged shirt and shorts,
the salute to the flag hoisted in school.
– My translation of the Telugu poem 'Indian Heritage' by Taidala Anjaiah (from his collection 'PunAsa').
Tags: Taidala Anjaiah
Posted in Poetry, Telugu, Translations | Comments Off on Indian Heritage
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
We are the wounded of a thousand generations
and not those who ever gave up arms
We are the veteran soldiers of a thousand defeats
and not those who ever surrendered
We are the sacrificial lambs of a thousand betrayals
and not the cowards who ever strayed from the path
We are the hardened warriors
who survived amid a thousand penal codes
Ours are the thousand and one springs
among the thousand winters
We're adivasis
We're women
We're dalits
We're blacks
-My translation of the Telugu poem 'mEm' (from the collection 'naludikkula nunchee ranDi') by Dalitbahujan poet and activist J. Gautam.
Tags: J.Gautam
Posted in Poetry, Telugu, Translations | Comments Off on We..
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
O Yashodhara!
You are like a dream of sharp pain,
life-long sorrow.
I don’t have the audacity to look at you.
we were brightened by Buddha’s light,
but you absorbed the dark
until your life was mottled blue and dark,
a fragmented life, burned out,
O Yashodahara!
The tender sky comes to you for refuge
seeing your shining but fruitless life
and the pained stars shed tears
My heart breaks,
seeing your matchless beauty,
separated from your love,
dimming like twilight.
Listening to your silent sighs,
I feel the promise of heavenly happiness is hollow. (more…)
Tags: Hira Bansode
Posted in Marathi, Poetry, Translations | Comments Off on Yashodhara
Friday, April 9th, 2010
The Sun's a weaver
with rays as threads
sky as the loom
he weaves the rainbow
The Sun's a hunter
with rays as arrows
the sky his forest
he hunts down cheetahs of darkness
The Sun's a lover
in the first light of millions of rays
he descends from the sky
and loves earth's silent eyes, deeply.
My translation of Sooryudu, a Telugu poem by Dalit poet K.G.Satyamurthy ( 'Sivasagar'). Source: his collection, Sivasagar Kavitvam (1968-2002).
Tags: Sivasagar
Posted in Poetry, Telugu, Translations | Comments Off on The Sun
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
Wherever sound loses
silence wins
after digging for many days
your hands may become sore
but your eyes moisten
soon as you see a little water.
Returning from cutting ribbons at all doors
I realized I had not opened the door to my own room
someone's calling me, repeatedly,
I thought I was being called
I realized later that they were calling themselves.
whenever I climbed up
they invited me with applause
but when I started for the next step
I heard someone asking me to step down.
I roamed all over the garden
a jasmine creeper caught my attention
it had its own personality
whatever it clung to was covered
it could look at the world on its own.
I will win the whole world
some victor
would arrive and win me,
it's useless
therefore
first, I will
win myself
then
I'll run the world.
My attempt at translating the Telugu poem 'Sweeya Mudra' (from the collection 'Bhoomi Bhasha') by Dalit poet and activist Katti Padma Rao.
Tags: Kathi Padma Rao
Posted in Poetry, Telugu, Translations | 2 Comments »
