War a hearts ravage-5
English Translation: P. Jayalakshmi & Bhargavi Rao
Telugu Original : “Yuddham oka Gunde Kotha” by Seela Subhadra Devi
Situations devious
relentlessly surround us.
Time to bring out truth and untruth
cause for motivated and unmotivated action.
Somebody must help to disrupt
conditions which interrupt
mankind’s peaceful living,
her mind’s enlightenment, and
her enduring preserve of values.
If war is an answer to war
then first war begins at home.
For once, flip
through pages of history–
how much blood stained which page
which bloodstain points to which religion;
how many paragraphs when pressed
scatter how many lost lives.
It’s nothing new.
Once
review history, new lessons added.
Every war a cover for despotism,
every strategy a backstab
every promise repeated of world peace;
a gradual stamping out of nations
under metal boots.
Would eat fire even for personal gain
stacking nuclear stock pile in stealth
to display an empty hand.
Caught unawares
instruct new lessons on morality.
Pages of history not enough, here,
to account for everyone’s honesty.
On canvas of women‘s hearts
begins real war
where tearful thoughts are penned!
Wherever war is fought,
Don’t women-victims alone,
with their cohort-consort train
leap to watery well’s death,
resort to selves’ immolations on funeral pyres,
torch inner courts, bear fourth degree tortures
behind closed closet doors?
From pages of history leap out
such tales of woe
as slag from ore!
Must erect victory columns
upon royal bastions wrecked,
in business houses battered,
on wrack and ruin of edifices,
among funeral-flaming pyres, or
on festering bone-heaps!
Hereinafter
take books on history, Puranas and Ithihasas
dust, turn every leaf over in mother’s lap
or else
petty kingships’ wicked intrigues
as truths in history hidden,
as dust deposits of ash,
will blow into face and eyes
leaving no history to dip head in
thereinafter.
Under war clouds
innocent orphans forlorn —
retarded buds unblown —
skyward, with hope fasten eye sepals
to spot peace pigeons
who fall to earth tired.
Cloaking selves with fear streaks
fanned by vulture-wings,
cries knotting in throat
like fear-struck rodents holed up,
dry, weathered and wasted infant joys
on thorn-thickets of war.
Battle-battered terrain alone
Becomes, then, maternal lap
to shelter in her womb.
At an age of lisping
become an armed armoury.
At an age of nestling in mother’s lap,
seek bare death’s hug surging forward;
marble-play with grenades,
hide and seek with bombs behind stone heaps.
Alas! It’s an everyday fare.
Weeping wails of orphan’d
stay stuck knotted in throat.
Behind which ‘parda’
beyond their hearing,
has their mother melted away?
In which earthy depths
are comforting fingers
lay buried mutilated?
Under which debris is
fellow feeling entombed,
where even a mother and sister
are regular strangers,
their affection-laden clasps,
blessings hidden under faded curtains?
On every roof top fly war tunes’ flags, and
mind-meadows, overgrown brush-wood brakes.
Now and then stirring up pity’s tear drops
helpless, fall, failing to wet the heart athirst.
Right-wrong calculations uncounted
stop between fingers short,
remain between lips unarticulated
shattering human values.
As death’s shadow embraces human frame,
skyward turn telescoped eyes
with bated breath expecting
a mahatma to descend from some alien planet.
A bird-shadow even
passes as a bomber through the body.
A mother in fear’s hold,
even as she sees sons off for battle,
rains blessings through her tear shield.
Skeptical of their return alive
Keeps alive memory
through pictures caught by heart’s camera.
Does one need
a blood bathed battle field
for heroic death?
Death missing his course,
as a kalasarpa,
may even strike entering
sun-screened secure chambers
of one’s home.
*****
(To be continued-)
జన్మస్థలం విజయనగరం.రచయిత,కవి, చిత్ర కారుడు ఐనా శీలా వీర్రాజు గారి తో వివాహానంతరం హైదరాబాద్ లో నివాసం.1970 లో కథారచన తో సాహిత్య రంగంలో అడుగు పెట్టి తొమ్మిది కవితా సంపుటాలు, మూడు కథా సంపుటాలు,ఒక నవలిక వెలువరించారు. వంద మంది కవయిత్రుల కవితల సంకలనం ” ముద్ర” కు డా.పి.భార్గవీరావు తో కలిసి సహసంపాదకత్వం వహించారు.ప్రధానోపాధ్యాయినిగా పదవీవిరమణ చేసారు.