Jayant Sharma
Santè’s gone crazy today—crazy like anything.
All relate his insanity to his drinking habit
but the reality– unknown.
Back in the village–
Santè was a happy family man;
making his living
beating pebbles by the riverside.
How could he go insane all of a sudden
upon arriving Kathmandu?
What’s such a mistake of Santè not to
–cast dirt on the well that gave him water?
–quarrel with his tools before using them?
Not probably that his only son
was nibbled by the war–
But the very pride of being a martyr’s father
must have made him go haywire?
May be Santè got screwed off
while trying to save his brother
from the pounce of wild hounds–
approaching the city.
Still Dushashanas are walking–chest broad.
Has Santè lost his mind
only because he couldn’t withstand
the shrieks of his daughter
before Dhritarastra’s blindness?
An unwanted caw of reform and change
A useless growling of fake guarantees
Terror and threat—protest and pretense
Ego and vaunt—deceit and reproach
Olympic marathon of power—avarice
All my geese are swans—obstinacy
In this nugatory combat of power bulls
where does Santè fit?
Another monocracy in the camouflage of republics
Was it an offence to speak up?
He who learnt to pronounce yes couldn’t say no.
He who learnt the lessons of truth couldn’t lie.
Had it not been for Santè–
who otherwise should have lost it?
But this is not the very first time he went unhinged.
Santè—banished from his village,
vanished from the human list.
Santè—a scapegoat–a victim of cruel hoax,
crushed under the grindstone of anarchy.
After the mountains of endurance ultimately collapsed
Santè–time and again–has gone frantic.
And–
Whenever the hollow tune of such changes is heard
Whenever the disguised saviors turn predators
Whenever the avowers spew the truthless
Whenever impunity assaults the state
Many Santè(s) are still bound to go crazy.
(Translated from Nepali by the poem himself.)
[Jayant Sharma is a translator and editor working mainly in English-Nepali language pair. He is the publisher and editor of an English literary magazine SATHI, which promotes Nepali literature through English translations and the founder of translateNEPAL which is an initiative of representing Nepal in the global literary scene. Currently, he is working on his debut collection of poems and short stories. A computer engineer by profession, he switches back and forth between the likes of technology and literature.]