BROTHER KILLED IN THE PHOTOGRAPH

A poem by Deebachelvan in Tamil titled
PUGAIPPADATHIL KOLLAPPATTA SAGODHARAN
Translated into English by latha Ramakrishnan

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It was only after renouncing all our memories and dreams
on the last day that we could surrender
the Mothers, on their own tore off
the photographs of their Sons.

My Brother, till the final day of War
Somehow we had kept you hidden
On a night when it rained cats and dogs
And when all our faces were swept away
by the floods
Your face alone remained with us.

The moment had arrived
When even those photographs having you-
We had to do away.
The lights have turned dead.

On the day when we were
said to have surrendered,
or when we felt that we were taken
as prisoners
the news reached us that
Your tombs had also been exploded.

I saw you all writhing and bleeding
It was said that they were gong to bury you
in a wide, deep pit.
In that mammoth coffin, blood was seeping,
drenching our Beloved Land.
Learning that you had been butchered by them
Even unknowing to others, silently,
we couldn’t shed tears.
Where and how did your death place _
we are unable to know.
The evenings that love and rever You
turning forever lost
and the memories turning terribly vulnerable
in too huge a coffin they have filled to the brim
ashes of the whole lot of tombs.

My Brother, Mother says that when she had to come,
leaving behind Your photographs,
her hands bled.
We have nothing with us by way of reminding you.
They have killed you in the photograph itself.
The coconut-shoot which You had planted
had also been uprooted.

The candle that your younger sister
and my child
hold and go around,
glows and burns my hand.
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20.11.2009