Last night
Kanshi Ram appeared in my dream
he raised me from the floor
and placed me on a chair
~~~
The beloved crop
committed suicide
The farmer
only expressed solidarity
~~~
Caste
is a Hydra
If you cut it into pieces
it survives as sub-castes
~~~
Surprisingly
the murderer
looks
exactly like a man!
~~~
God
is not a clay idol:
She is the dalit mother
who changes mud into rotis
~~~
Not everyone
can become a Buddha
It is enough
if he doesn't lose his buddhi.
~~~
Phule
blew the conch:
Shudra
this is the right beginning for you.
~~~
All the milk is from the buffaloes
but the cow is worshipped
Isn't that
varna discrimination among animals?
~~~
How does green grass burn?
Throw in some dogmas,
politics into it
and you'll know how.
~~~
The one who is sold is the boss
and the buyer is the slave!
Marriage
isn't even a business.
My translation of some of Netala Pratap Kumar's Telugu naaniis from his collection of poetry 'daLita naaniilu'.
Naaniis are a new form of short poems, somewhat like haikus, that Telugu poets have been experimenting with in the last two decades or so. Please read more naaniis by Netala Pratap Kumar here.
Dr Kathi Padma Rao, talking about Pratap Kumar's naaniis, says:
Buddhism is the philosophical foundation of 'daLita naaniis'. Ambedkar vaadam (Ambedkarvad) is its sociology. The idiom is of the Dalit wadas. The expression stems from struggles and conflicts that are a part of life. Reading these aphorisms is like listening to my father, or my uncle, or my grandfather.