An Exposition of Peace

The peace we long for
swings between
The point of a bayonet and the heart beat
Like a dying man's last breath
The peace we long for
Lies on the bed.
The peace we long for is a temple, a masjid,
an explosion, a cease-fire, an ending, a continuance
An injured song, a thunder of lightning
dropped, snapped from heavens.
It's like the foot of a banned poem
Buried in the gullet.
Amidst the sonorous expositions of peace
By the bearded Mullahs and Sadhus
The peace we long for gasps for breath.
.
The peace we long for
is lame like the gait
of a dog that broke his leg.
.
Pity!
We have to get on
With whatever amount of peace
The state rations us
Collecting it in our bags.

*Translated by Naudury Murthy

Bodies Reverised

A rivrer……

Born anew on the earth

Springing out from the clefts

Gurgling to the frontiers of earth and sky

The breeze humming afresh

Nigh lingering for a new language

Clambering onto the dreams

Night’s eyes weary out

New script

New dream

New river

Minutes in search of synonyms

Slumber carried away

In a hooded cart

Tired earth

 canopied with mushrooms

Two liquiscent bodies

In the horizon

The brooks running to eternity

Two breaths…

Melting into ragas,

Reign the night

Jus two spectators

Night steals a look

Night drags on

Dawn stalled

Even the sun sleeps.

                                                                                                Telugu: Digantamlo Nadi

                                                                                                         English: K.S.P.Roy

MY SOUL

Like a warm hand
on my weary shoulder
you came close to me .

In a dreamless night
you became a balmy poem.
For days sans a wrap
you have given a shape.
Shielding a heroic poet
you infused inspiration , imagination.
On a wounded body
you landed as a bird with healing touch .
Like spring that courted the earth
You are a multi- splendoured smile.
You became a butterfly
far beyond evolutionary dynamics.

You are the pollen of life with an amazing fusion of feelings on observing --- thorny plants, Caltrops, leeches that drained my blood in Nallavagu , nuances of songs composed on machans , tasty reeds and swinging ears of jowar corn .

For a sharpened chisel like me
you are an abiding aspiration.
During the nights I slept
you softly spread as tender youth .
Across contemplative tamarind tree
you are my sap green future
painted by nature .

You are my soul who
showed me what I am
placing me before a mirror.

You are a loving lightning
seen in the wrinkles of my mother's face .
Like my father's humming tune
ringing in ears,
you glided into my inner core.

So much compassion
So much love
So much warmth you shower!

The moment you stepped
into threshold of my life
stretching your right foot
I shuddered with a singular self-confidence.

With the sense you lent
to dreams blooming in my heart
I have become a poet !

[Translated from Telugu by T.S.Chandra Mouli & B.B.Sarojini from the volume Sarihaddurekha , 2002,poem titled KuDi Kaalu,p-14-15]

follow this link for my poem in "The Shared Mirror"

http://roundtableindia.co.in/lit-blogs/blog/2010/05/06/awwal-kalima/

The City Imprisoned

 

 

Road. . .  like a  barren field.

Running vehicles

Resemble those crying over

The dead body

Here and there

Noise of frightened eyes

peeping from behind the bars

A precarious ‘khakhi’ keeping guard

The buzzing city

now standing

at the door of silence like

a prostitute

The lad’s kite,

the dead leaf

freeze in the air

All the doors closed

for the newspapers

that quench our morning-thirst

Man opens eyes

in front of the blind box

with the clatter of a chariot

The road

dark and wet with flood all over

The man yet to reach home……

a boat caught up in

high tide

We….distanced

losing the right on ourselves

eating our own bodies

The city-sans-eyes

now counting the corpses.

The same hands

the same lips

the crushed bodies.

The lone breath…CURFEW

the hungry body wakes up again

to curfew

Fatally chained in loneliness

we run for life

Curfew closes on all sides.

Freedom jailed in houses

Now it is a rifle that keeps guard

Man…behind the bars

bleakly looking out

Into curfew

Telugu   :Jail to Nagaram

English: K.S.P. Roy

ENDLESS JOURNEY

I started from somewhere

Did not know till where would I go at all.

Yester, today, past, present

Time spent, spending

Was crystal clear known

        Only, in experience

All the paths are for morrow

They extend along, stretching the man

What’s tomorrow?

Will it be like yesterday? Or else

At least like today?

I am asking you –

Tell me- can you say surely?

Try    - try imagining a little

Perhaps none can tell!

In to the morrow unimaginable

Not knowing our way leading where to

We tread forward.

The good deeds of today,

Remove the hurdles of tomorrow’s path

All of them say so

Some seek god, worship

Embracing all the ways around god

For a good morrow

Prostrating, on kneels, into the ecstasy of prayers

They relax weeping immensely.

In their worship of god

They do not even care for the man beside them.

Some of them store the prasadam with patent rights.

And some more turning holy soldiers

And some more bubbling in the mass preaches

Luring with money, inviting into the religion

They are washing off the past.

Can we befool the attitude changing the attire?

Can we erase the growth of the past that come from within?

Only by reciting the words

Can we turn religious followers?

Can we pour our mind in total in to religion we changed to?

One word from me!

In the journey of life love is the only access to reach near

In the journey of love my beloved is my companion.

Glancing into the eyes of my lady love

A feel of lifetime security

Though weeps and tears perturb me

The self confidence I pour into me from her

Always keeps me losing not.

Loving my beloved heartily

Penance to have a darsan of her inner self

All this

Is this labor of mine is to love the fellow man.

It is from this hard slog

The voice within speaks to me so

‘Man is truth, Man alone is truth, besides Loving man

Rest all is false’.

***

Telugu original : EDATHEGANI  PRAYAANAM

By : YAKOOB  KAVI

 Translation by:  jagathi

NOT A WASTE !

Not a waste

anything-

Every enjoyment essential,

every  event for an entity only—

Let the sea swell still, still….

Nothing goes waste!

Let man appear in

Myriad shapes,

The ultimate survives on its own !

Then and there, all forms look

Tempting of terrifying—

Baffling as a bewitching spectacle

May disappear instantly !

To await with utmost patience

Is the need of the hour,

Let us extend entire responsibility to time!

***  ***  ***  ***  *** ***  ***  ***  ***  ***

[Translated from Telugu by T.  S.  Chandra Mouli & B.  B. Sarojini from the volume Sarihaddu Rekha (Nov.2002) ; poem titled : Thadi (P.144) ]