kisaan

attempted translation for starry, sunshine and other non-hindi speaking people failed miserably…so pls. if any of you could do the honours, i’ll truly grateful. kasam se!

this is a poem about some villager like families i see daily at the nehru place crossing. they look like rajasthani or gujarati farmers but what compelled them to leave everything behind and take shelter on the city roads tears me apart. for me, farmers and doctors are equal to god. what made my gods turn beggars?

this is the translation by aditi,

At the crossroad they stand of life and otherwise
Battling hunger, everyday a little she dies
I have seen her often in the same place
Every time I have managed to turn my face
How long can I look away from her suffering
When it touches me to the core of my being
I question whether its a facade or she really suffers
but the questions merely act as real life buffers
between my thought and the action of running a check
why the farmer was forced to leave his land and beg
Was it the system? the government, or simply nature’s fury
was it you, was it me or that we shirked our duty?

and atul’s version, you can check at
http://deterministichaos.wordpress.com/

Study for The Beggars by Kathe Kollwitz; Image: © Burstein Collection/CORBISArtwork: ©VG Bild-Kunst,
Bonn; Photographer: Barney Burstein; Creator Name: Kathe Kollwitz; Date Created: 1924