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Greetings

April 26th, 2010 by naren bedide

A century will end

a new year will arrive

if what's happening now is war

why shouldn't what's arriving be war?

You know the candles you're lighting

are dying

the earthen lamps in your streets

are signs of your darkness

why do you

light up all the festive pandals

while leaving the lamp in your heart unlit?

Yes, until yesterday your hut used to burn to ashes

today, used as firewood in the winter fires lit in your gudem*

you've turned into soot.

It was in Vempenta** that they were burnt alive

you can go on celebrating the festival

until those flames touch us.

With the sharpened knives those babus gave you

cut your bodies into two

to inspire the fistfuls of blood

to flow as canals in your gudems

this new year, take a manusmriti as greeting

from those babus.

To commemorate your happiness

feast

on your children's future cut, like bread, into pieces

as a reflection of the blood

and in place of the body of

Christ.

This is a happy occasion

we shouldn't think about anything

even if the ground under our feet is cutting us

like the teeth of a saw we'll shout in joy

and chase away all the street dogs

to rule the streets tonight.

 

Students!

Let's sweep

all our university rooms clean

Come, let's heap all those glass shards

on pages torn from our books,

Ambedkar will be born again anyway

to light lamps in our dark rooms

and burn our black lips

with hot coals

to purify them,

love us and leave.

 

Brothers!

You who ate the first fruits

are you handing over new begging bowls

to the next generation?

Yes this is a new year

so only those who died

are singing the song of war

only that song can guide us.

Men

become lovers of war

not to walk with history

but to run history.

 

Tried to translate Katti Padma Rao's Telugu poem, 'Greeting' (from his collection of poetry, 'mulla kiriiTam').

*guuDem: Dalit quarter in a village.

** VEmpenTa refers to this incident.

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