I don't know how I came here,
Before these weapons.
At each stroke I am broken, scattered.
These pieces that fell from me,
I do not recognize them.
I have not said the wounds hurt;
I have not said my whole being hurts;
I have not said anything to anyone.
I do not see what these weapons are making of me.
I do not see the hands that hold these weapons.
I am falling, breaking.
You will become a statue, I was told.
The reed of my mind
Is falling from my head to the floor.
I call, shadows do not speak,
Trees and leaves are put to sword,
Their chests and limbs nailed to a cross.
Why do eyes want to be carved
Why do they want to see the thorns?
I am impaled, I rage and I am hurt,
I am beaten and scorned.
Will my dreams represent anything
After being taken apart?
Hill flanks for eons have observed
Lovely skies that came down to me,
Touched me, and left.
Now all this to become a statue!
How many of my own
And how many curious onlookers,
Will see this how?
Footsteps to the water taps have paused to look,
And like the air, flow past.
I have not sung a song, I do not gather words,
I do not wish to say anything.
I do not wish to see the incidents,
Nor feel hands that touch or this pain.
I would instead watch a pair of dove playing,
I would watch the river ripple in the sun.
Don't carve me, don't make a statue of me,
I am fine, whatever I am, I don't need shape.
Let me stand like a tree of an evening.
I am hurt, don't make me a god, your deity,
In the depths of the night let me live like a wall,
I won't tell any tales,
I am tired, I am exhausted,
Don't put me in your temple.
Even as I watch, the paths I walked turn strange
Strange voices come, they come from nowhere.
I am like a horizon that has lost its direction,
I don't know how I came to be hurt like this.
Many wild birds have already made their nests,
I have been standing, waiting to be carved, without meaning.
O drop of water glistening.
Where did these weapons come from?
I am a stone, where did gentle touch and worship come from?
There could have been a voice, a sound , to wake me
Where did scary screaming come from?
Enough! I am hurt.
My wish to become a deity
Is gone.
Translated by:
Pallav
Ranjan
