The Shared Mirror

At noon

I'm looking at my corpse

blocking the sluice of the tank

Moving hither thither

from the wind's blows

my corpse has bloated

after slipping into the sluice

Perhaps now

I'll look

at the corpse breaking up the sluice.

My translation of the Telugu poem 'ika ippuDu' (from the 1996 collection of Dalit poetry 'padunekkina pATa')  by Jugash Vili.

The rivers are solidifying

the mountains are flowing

open the doors wide…

This is not the time of the rising sun

this is the hour of the blazing sun

it's difficult to keep the eyes closed

There are only whilrwinds and storms here

and no breezes or drizzles

You won't hear the tinkle of the anklets now

or the sitar music of gentle breezes

There's only an endless roll of drums

for now, they might be diverse voices

so what? They're all defiant voices!

Friend!

Now, here

the waves are crossing the shore

open the doors wide…

they'll flow into you

or they'll cross you too.

My translation of the Telugu poem 'talupulu bArlA teru…' (from the 1996 collection of Dalit poetry 'padunekkina pATa') by Jugash Vili.