THE EMPEROR’S CITY, PALACE & THE SEA-SHORE

A poem by Deebachelvan
Translation of his Tamil poem titled _
ARASANIN NAGARAM, MAALIGAI MATRUM KADARKARAI
Translated into English by latha ramakrishnan

The Emperor’s City revels,
Laughing throughout the night.
My friend, after the conversation
I remained waiting, at the sea-shore
for long.
Forcibly removed from there
being in front of the ‘Vaadi’ tenament
where I was staying
I keep sending you
along with the sea-shore
all possible messages.
Please, can you tell me,
what am I to do, henceforth?

The Sea-shore keeps telling
something.
The roaring laughter of Power
keeps going past the Sea
Spreading in all directions.
The Sea doesn’t derive any
Happiness.
Pushing off its waves on
all sides
It keeps telling something.
All the communications so full of appeals,
it is the Sea which is giving
a thorough reading.

How to reveal that those communications
which, taken away,
were crushed and grounded?
With whom we can share
our humiliations?
That Palace which is being
fed and nourished by Power
has confined us in a
small tin-shelter.
It has pasted our
still damp blood
everywhere.
The Monarch keeps laughing
always.

The Palace reverberates
with the great joy of the Monarch.
From the dream-torn Sea-shore
that is kept as an exhibit
in the street opposite
what at all can be uttered?
Wherever we turn we see
the Monarch laughing
From atop the images of
our defeated sand-mounds.
Their City is still
celebrating the Victory.
Devovouring our lives it shines.

I have to make you realize
how cruel were the words uttered
by the Monarch –
Yet, I am unable to
repeat them.
With our faces darkening
we suffered wordlessly.
The Minister said that we should
clap and laugh happily
to please the Monarch.
Some of us did oblige,
doing their best
to keep the Monarch amused.

One and all stood
facing the sea-shore,
telling that they had
lost their smiles and hands.
Only after the Monarch had
reached his abode
and relished his food
we were allowed to go to our
‘Vaadi’ tenaments.
After all these, even after several days
I’m not able to share with you
anything; anything at all.
We are being cheated; deceived
ever so.
Unlike our Nation here
we can have
the nights in full.

Night after Night
the smiles and hands of one and all
have been taken away
across the Seas.
The Monarch’s City too keeps laughing
night after Night.
On the sea-shore I remain
spending the entire night.
O
* 12.10.2009 – Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksam A Meet, Colombo, the old Parliament structure, Sea-shore.

About Deebachelvan

Poet Deebachelvan has emerged as a significant voice highlighting the plights of the Tamils in Today's Eelam. He is one of the important poets of Eelam. He depicts the war-ridden life of the Tamils with shells pouring from above day and night in the Sri Lankan soil, in a very poignant manner, being there right in the midst of it all, experiencing the miserable life of the hapless Tamil population in the Island.

The sufferings and hardships that the Tamils plunged all too deep in a life of violence, discriminations and uncertainties , their extensive loss and miseries that are hidden from the world's knowledge and purview and the innumerable cold-blooded murders, shielded from the world's eyes are being recorded with a sincerity and seriousness that make his poems and interviews stand apart. The cruel State-sponsored genocide in Sri Lanka is shown in raw flesh and blood in his poems which give a graphic description of the extensive destruction inflicted on the Tamils.

The main reason for Deebachelvan’s poems to be so powerful and poignant could be his life in Eelam, witnessing the horror and sorrow from close quarters. This proximity has raised his poems from being empty rhetoric to powerful and poetic documentation of all that is going on in the Island.

Apart from poems he is revealing his skill and expertise in other fields too, such as painting, photography, writing critical reviews, using all his talents and potentials towards creating the much-needed awareness about the hardships that the Tamils of Sri Lanka are undergoing.

His poems have been published in two volumes and have won wide-acclaim.

His blogspot (http://www.deebam.blogspot.com/ / http://www.edeebam.blogspot.com/ ) is also giving a true and graphic picture of the miserable life of the Tamils in the island.

Written by Latha Ramakrishnan

ABHIRAAJ HAS FORGOTTEN HIS BOOKS

Translation of the poem in Tamil by Deebachelvan titled
ABHIRAAJ PUTHAGANGALAI MARANDHUPOYIRUKKIRAAN
Translated into English by latha ramakrishnan
________________________
Loordhammaa! What illustrations I am to make of
Time?
The words stinking and stifling_
I shake them all for you.
For constructing a house
on the raised portion of
our piece of Land
I keep searching for stones
during nights.

I told them the fact
That children never carried guns
On their own free will.
They say that a gun was retrieved
From Abhiraaj.

I have not yet seen Abhiraaj.
On a day when the
Sun-light was scattered in abundance
despite going quite a distance
he was not to be seen.
No use blaming anybody.
Describing anything at length proves impossible.
Last night the wind
snatched away the tent.
Your younger sisters covered by dust
He probed and taken hold of.
That there is absolutely no memory of the gun
in you_
so I have said in my confession-statement.
See what all I speak…
I feel amused and astonished.

As all the words have been accepted
with no resistance at all
I think I can meet Abhiraaj.
In the books given to him
work-tools were drawn.
He is also being taught
carpentry.

As like you
I too stand in front of
the flag where the lion roars
everyday.
I sing the Sinhalese National Anthem
without fail.
I have taken care to
display the President’s images
in my tent.
Thus_
with no blood-shed
all assassinations take place.
Just don’t talk about guns, please.
Pushed inside a terrible godown
fallen, we languish there.
Sand keep piling up.
The house that I have mentioned earlier
continues its search for us in vain.

I keep talking again and again,
using multi-coloured words.
Dipping my hands into the
blood-filled cups
I keep calling out.
The garbage piled up at
the last stretch of effort
keep simmering.
Abhiraaj has forgotten the books.

No loopholes at all.
That which is called path
drags us on a different course.
All too tightly structured
the fortresses are.
Please don’t forward
your response to me!
I have to see you again
Loordhammaa!
I am unable to write
how the dreams arrive.
The hands of Abhiraaj are filled with
chalk-pieces and chisels.
________________________________

CHILDREN KEEP ON CRYING

A Poem by Deebachelvan titled
‘Kuzhandhaigal Azhudhukonde Irukkiraargal
Translated into English by latha ramakrishnan
----------------------------------------------

Thus I have to give you
but abominable nights always.
Even if it day
I am not able to come
any closer to you.
We are doing everything
out of compulsion.
Of my motherhood
which leaves you abandoned,
what do you lament,
shedding tears?
I did hope that
the lullabies that lie entwined
in the space
would make you sleep.

They say that they would
safely bring you back to me.
In the course of the journey
looking at the houses, wishing them
and so undertaken
a friend has given birth
to a child.

It is for the official enquiry
pertaining to safety measures
that we are detained here.
Refusing to sleep
and turning utterly spent-out
not seeing the Sun
in the morning you are sleeping.
As we can’t go anywhere freely
I ask you to bear with it all
for a while.

My eyes too remain damp.
When I am overcome
by sleep
I am in the unfortunate situation
coming and introducing myself
to you all over again.
Here, along with carrying their babies
on their shoulders
they have brought their better-halves too
with them.
Oh, why have they separated us?
This night is stretching far too
wide, elongating
monstrously.
Who at all can show me
your face which bemoans
in some faraway camp,
with tears streaming?
For various things
children keep on crying.
Tomorrow too come in great haste.
How am I to send my response to you…
They do keep assuring me
that they would bring you to me.
Heeding to my words
and waiting far too long
Your throat has turned
terribly choked
alas, I can tell only that
which they have mouthed…

That these are cruel nights
you would have realized without me
having to tell you.
Your wail can be heard quite close.

Asking you to bear with it all
a little more time-
Oh, how merciless those words
would sound.
My dream is so full of the laps
that cradle you
and tend you to sleep.

All the children
for something or other
keep crying forever.
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