Hari Adhikari
My assassins are speaking non-stop
in my condolence
and I am condemned
to praise the same decorative oratory
In a grand meeting hall at Geneva
they are shouting
keeping my dead body at the centre
(humanity should not be murdered in this way)
on the other hand, suicides continue
in the dark streets of Kigali and Mogadishu
The knowledgeable persons are
writing feature articles
on the intolerable grief of my bereaved wife and mother
on the other hand in the streets of Zagreb and Kosovo
my widowed wife is being raped again and again.
In a meeting held on the
top floor of the UN building
the great statesmen of the world in
anxious moods are sipping
wine deep red as blood
and are preparing a white paper to be issued
on the future of my orphans
on the other hand on the streets
of Rio and Sao Paulo
the guards themselves are
killing the human offspring
I am fully safe in the piles of papers
however, it is ages since I breathed my last
crushed under the ruins of Kabul.
Translated by Govinda Raj Bhattarai
Poet and critic Hari Adhikari is one of the most celebrated poetic signatures in present-day Nepal. His poems spout from the social fabric and reveal subtle realities of life and the world. Born in June 1952 in Kavre District of Nepal, poet Adhikari stated writing in 1967. His first published works appeared in Jyotsna, a college magazine. His published works include Ramlalko Aaakash (Ramlal’s Sky, a collection of stories), Sansadma Ek Din (One Day at the Street, a collection of poetry), Hari Adhikarika Kavita (Hari Adhikari’s poems), Garmentki Gayatri (Gayatri of Garment, poems), Pratinayak (Villain, a collection of stories) etc. Adhikari was awarded in the Youth Festival and Competition, Awarded in Martyrs’ Day Poetry Competition. He is the winner of First Prize, (National Poetry Festival), Garima Honor, Nava Kshiteez Vani Sahitya Award, Dan Maya Honor etc.