Bruised, but not Broken (poems)

-Challapalli Swarooparani 

11. New Syllabus

The same age-old stale lessons
In all the leaves of the same old book
White sheets blacken from
The soot that is in his mind.

Children’s rhymes go thus
Rama is a good boy
Sita is a good wife
Come on my daughter!
Grind the dough!

Rhymes filled with language the colour of crows
No space for real heroes
But there are fake ones in our history lessons.

History is preoccupied with
His own likes and dislikes but not reality
His speech, full of contradictions, dogmas
That fill space.
And so, Mr History-less has now picked up a pen.
Pouring tar on useless history
He digs through layers of earth until
History emerges, rises
An angry blood, pure flesh.

(Telugu: “Guna ‘Paatham” translated by Dr G. Chenna Reddy, Dept. of English, Acharya Nagarjuna University.)

*****

(To be continued-)

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