THE CURRENCY-NOTES OF WAR__COLLECTED FOR THE SAKE OF CHILDREN

A poem by Deebachelvan in Tamil titled
KUZHANDHAIGALUKAAGA SEGARIKKAPPATTA PORIN NAANAYATHAAL
Translated into English by latha ramakrishnan
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“who lived in Kudumi-Malai?”_ the children ask
Having a whole lot of questions as to
why that mountain is being attacked by boats
filled with weapons and missiles
They keep looking at the currency-notes
where the battle is taking place

The War is somehow being reminded repeatedly
This currency-note has drawings of all the
annihilations
right till date
etched on it.

The incidents and defeats
that would prove unbearable to retrieve-
They’ve heaped
with the help of that mocking sheet
made of the Tales of those days
that indeed freeze our memory
They have collected for Children
Only those success of the
Cruel Times
that horrify Us

that why these aircrafts
still keep flying everywhere
with a diabolically hungry speed
and that why helipads
kee flying so low
still
_ these children keep on asking.

The smile of the face so sinful
Wearing the very holiness
Engraved at the backside
And the hands
Extended towards a direction-
I’m not able to translate.

For everything we have to go, carrying these
Currency-notes.
And hold it in our hands
And not only we have to live so
But, work for IT also.

In the all-burnt nation what for the Cheyinflec
tear apart the land still _ ask I.

Terrorizing forms get inside
the Iranaimadu Pond.

The act of biting and devovouring
the burnt land
and your smile on the other side
stay inseparably together;
one upon the other.
The all-too sharp dagger
that this monarch holds aloft
Is sure to slice my children
in all the days to come.

Oh father, who has drunk our Sea?
_ so our children have started asking.
“on what they had planted the ‘Big flag’?
And whose blood was shed there?
And where were those pour souls
residing there
chased away _
The children of our Tomorrows
are sure to enquire.

In the Currency-Notes collected
and kept safe for Children’s sake –
The guns of the troops in action
The Stars where Rank and Power grow
_ all the children keep calculating it all.

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