Modanath Prasrit
When lamps of the heart started burning again
Darkness started fleeing from the country
Man-eating vampires of the haunted house
Grew nervous with fear.
Then
Their house passed the proposal
To maintain the dark moon night
For eons
And once again raising the black hoods of rifles
They started storming villages at mid-nights.
One night
Surprising us suddenly
They captured us in their murderous paws.
Yes, just in this much too
As if they had found the lock itself to circumscribe history
They inflated their arrogance-drunk chests!
And they with all their might
To shatter my will
Broke staffs on my body,
To make me confess secrets
They pounded me with boots and rifle butts,
To immobilize me
They tied me with manacles and chains,
To cool off my zeal
Alone in a locked up cell, shackled,
They threw me on a cemented floor for wintry months.
“My body will fall if you cut me, but not this faith of mine!
My skeleton will rot if you kill me, but not this thought of mine!”
Thus, being rejected continually
At their wit’s end
Finally tired,
With legs almost in the pyre
With the funeral fire about to be lit
The reactionary leaders
Dragged me and thrust me
Into a more hopeless dungeon
Into the narrow cell of the Goleghar
And clicking huge locks shut at the door
Feeling secure
They drew in a breath of relief.
To one man
To just one unarmed man
Dozens of officials
And half a hundred body-builders
With months of physical training
On being able to do this much
Thinking it quite glorious
Proudly feeling elevated
As if having touched the Everest peak
Wiped the sweat from their snouts
And smiled the smile of a zombie.
As if trying to control the flood of rivers
By taking a handful of water in a pot
From inundant Koshi and Gandaki,
As if trying to block all the rays of the sun
By hanging a five-fingered palm on the sky,
These undiscerning fools
Holding the keys of the prison
Drowned themselves in barrels of alcohol.
A stool-clotted sewer near the bed,
Skull-cracking extreme stench!
Into a dark, silent, lonely cell
Like a midnight cremation ground
Having cast me like an animal
For months without a word
By making me suffocate
By weakening me
Hoping to make me prostrate myself in self-surrender
With the false dream of tipsy alcohol
These plunderers made merry for a while
In vain!
Your hot breath, friends,
Caused by heart-burning acid news
Of torture of a member of our group
Touches me here
Like fire!
Mother!
Your affectionate tears of agony
Trickle here on my breast.
Translated by Padma Devkota