Shrawan Mukarung
People have come out
To attend the fair
They have left digging the farm
They have left washing the dishes
They have left carrying the pebbles
They have come out
Leaving the schools
Leaving their offices,
Leaving the factories, temples, mosques and monasteries
People have come out
To attend the fair
Leaving all their ongoing lovely works
Today, people have come out
To attend the fair
Why don’t you come out Bekhaman?
The poets have come out
The artists have come out
There came out
The leaders, the journalists, the lawyers
And the professors
All have come out Bekhaman!
You please come out
This is your fair
It has started from your home-yard
It is your job
To remember your ancestors
To worry about your descendants
We are just the onlookers
We are just fair-goers
It is you
Who have to drive
The chariot of thought
You drive it
Being drunk in chhyang or without it
It is you
Who have to take it to the lanes after lanes
It’s you Bekhaman!
People have come from villages in the hills
They have come from settlements in the Madhes
From the hinterlands of the Himal and the suburbs
They have come
Crammed in the buses
Sleeping on the bus-tops
Hanging at the bus-doors
They have come to attend the fair
Bekhaman!
Why are you still silent?
Why are you staying in
Smoking your hookah
Just guarding the history in your yard?
Bekhaman!
You please come out.
Listen Bekhaman!
Now, there will be no deception upon you
This gathering of people
Will not let your chariot fall
The chariot of your thought
In the twenty-first century
Now, no dictator can
Cut your nose-and-ears!
The sun has taken bath
The flowers have started blooming
The horizon is already red
We have already offered
The sacrifice of our beliefs
The fair has stared
Bekhaman!
You please come out!
Translated by Dr. RamjiTimalsina
Shrawan Mukarung (b. 1968) is a famous Nepali poet, lyricist, essayist and dramatist. Born in Bhojpur in Eastern Nepal, he stated writing in 1983. His popular publications are Desh Khojdai Janda (While Looking for the Nation, poems, Jeevanko Laya (Tune of Life, poems) Hiunko Darbar (A Snow Palace, songs); Yalambar (Play, 1996); Phoolko Aawaz (Voice of the Flowers, songs), Niskarsh (Conclusion, songs), Bise Nagarchiko Bayan ra Anya Kavita (Bise Nagarchi’s Statement and Other Poems, VCD, 2006 and book, 2010), Sun Re Siyaram (Siyaram, Listen to Me, songs) and Bhawalaya (The Abode of Feelings, essays). He lives with his family in Kathmandu.