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The Passion of Kanchikacherla Kotesu

March 31st, 2017 by admin

Kalekuri Prasad

Even as the wounds festered syam_kanchikahcerla

Wasn’t it your footprints

That I bore on my heart

Even as death approached, didn’t I seek life with only you?

Beloved, with the rice mixed with curd

That you served me in the morning as my witness

Shall I tell you the cause of my death?

 ‘Beloved’! To call you that

How the language of our hearts’ blood struggled!

Even as our bodies enveloped each other

In the dark

I could only call you ‘Mistress’

My wish was never fulfilled until death

Even as your folks tied me to a tree

And beat me like I was a beast

I imagined I was a prince in a swashbuckler film

If someone had asked, what happened?

I wanted to say that I loved you

But the raccabanda* had charged me with being a thief

Weren’t you the witness!

I know how to burn dead bodies

But you burnt me alive

"Father, forgive them,

for they do not know what they are doing"

I remembered what the padre told me

About our lord’s plea.

In remembrance of the sleepless nights we had spent together

If even a single tear drop had glistened in your eyes

I would have forgiven you and your race

The furnace you had stoked in my heart

The flames from the kerosene your folks poured over me

If asked, which hurt more

I can’t say anything, love

As these flames engulf me

It feels like you’re embracing me. 

~

This untitled poem by Kalekuri Prasad was translated from Telugu by Naren Bedide. The lynching of Kanchikacherla Kotesu for his love of an upper caste woman is illustrated in a series of drawings by Syam Cartoonist. Please see his album titled The Untouchable Love .

The village bench, where the elders hold council.

 

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