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Self-respect

August 5th, 2015 by admin

 Kamal Dev Pall

Centuries ago

You abused him

He remained silent

You became extremely happy;

You tested the limits of his tolerance

Although you had forgotten 

How you had poured molten lead into his ears

So that he couldn’t hear anything

And you would keep reciting Vedas and Simrities 

And you would keep devising new tools to enslave him.

Even then when you abused him

He captured in the depth of his mind

The movement of your lips and the expressions on your face  

However he never showed such expressions on his face.

All the poison and anger he swallowed 

Which after digestion, entered his bloodstream

Ran into his veins rapidly and then 

Entered into the veins of his descendants;

That poison and that aggression 

Are now entering inside me 

And will grow hot like lava

Inside the blood of countless oppressed people

And an explosion is possible any time. 

Kamal Dev Pall's Punjabi poem 'Svey Maan', from the collection 'Din Part Aungey' (The days will come back), translated by Rajinder Azad

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