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