who said

i've just had a week of involved discussions about singing the national anthem, patriotism and why politicians should be shot on sight. now in a house like ours, where all of us are rather opinionated the degree of peace is relative to how many people are in the room. i resent being made to stand up and sing the national anthem when i go to the movies in ahmedabad. i don't at all resent getting up early and racing out at nine in the morning to find a flag to sing at on independence day. i think republic day is a bit of a fraud, though i do recognise that the constitution is quite important and all that. but singing the anthem is a gesture, and i feel like there's more drama attached to the day independence was acknowledged.

what i did today was go out and buy a pair of sunglasses. which is makes it no different from what i might have done on any other day. except that there was less traffic today.

i do find though that i am more open to reading poetry on state holidays- in general. so i spent the afternoon with agha shahid ali, cups of tea and home made cookies. and am spending part of my evening with k satchidanandan. here- have a poem. after this though i am going off to watch firefly.


Who Said?

Who said
that waiting is a
railway station in North Malabar?
That a dawn in uniform
will arrive there in a coffin?

Who said
that memory is a fragrant window
opening on ripe cornfields?
That our bodies grow cold
as light grows dim there?

Who said
that trees have ceased to follow
wind’s language?
That we must conceal
from lilies and rabbits
the news of the death of love?

Who said
that now noons will be
heavy like a drunkard’s head?
That evenings will have sick hearts
like a lover’s whispered songs?

Who said that we are running barefoot
over red hot iron
with a fistful of childhood rain?
That we will, at the end,
hand over our keys
to the same rain?

Who said that men once dead grow younger
and then they enter another Time?
That all the birds that vanished
at sunrise will return
when the world ends?

Who said
that we would understand everything
with no one saying anything,
but will still not share
anything with anyone?

© K. Satchidanandan
From: Vikku
Publisher: DC Books, Kottayam, 2002
ISBN: 81-264-0465-5



© Translation: 2002, K. Satchidanandan
From: At Home in the World:
Publisher: Full Circle, Delhi, 2002

http://india.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=2865