I would like to introduce a Tamil poet of our times, Sri.Shanmuga Subbiah. Two of his poems, taken from New Writing in India (ed.Adil Jussawalla.PenguinIndia 1974) are given below. Incidentally, my copy of the book was bought at Trichy in1982. It had been lying deep inside the shelves....
AFTER READING THE DAILY
On the top floor
Of Parliament House
A dead rat
Stinks. Phew!
Is there no one
To sweep it away
And bury it
Fathoms deep?
In this land
The only thing
That can be said
For the likes of us
Is
We can smell things.
You great ones
Who rule over us
Haven't you the heart
To feel it?
****
1968
ASK THE BELLY
Scratch your head
Bite your tongue
Grin
Bow low
Keep your hands tied
Your feet pressed firmly together.
'What's all this?'
You'd better
Ask the belly.
It'll tell you.
*****
1968
Translated from Tamil byT K Doraiswamy.
42 years hence, I do not find a better portrait of our country.
*********
Balachandran V, Trivandrum 25.09.2010
Simple, yet meaningful. Something to think about! The original Tamil version would have been even better, right?
ReplyDeleteStark. Stunning. To the face. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing this.. its sad. we dont seem to have moved from square one... ask ure belly like he says...
ReplyDelete@RGB: You gave me THE IDEA! I will try to get the original; I know Tamil.
ReplyDelete@ Arun, K: Yes, his words are so powerful, aren't they? I cringed inside,reading it.