(Photograph taken from inside mother’s tent)A Poem by Deebachelvan
Title of the Original poem in Tamil-
AMMA EDHUVARAI KAATHUKKONDIRUPPAAL
Translated into English by Latha Ramakrishnan
____________________
01
Mother is one who could patiently bear everything.
Just for the sake of going home
she keeps waiting in the scorching heat
and in the dense rain
of the horrible wilderness
My Friend, after so many days
You have given me a glad news.
Your happiness born of the fact that
your mother is waiting for you
with dishes prepared by her own hand
in her own land -
that alone has caused the smile to sprout
in the faces of all those here
I am waiting for that.
How far/long my mother would be waiting.
For the permission to take me with her
For the loudspeaker which would call aloud
her/my name
Mother is waiting.
When the days are getting postponed
She tolerates it all.
How long/far she would be waiting -
I don't voice this as a query.
after all, aren't people returning to their homes...
Mother is one who could patiently bear everything.
Just for the sake of going home
she keeps waiting in the scorching heat
and in the dense rain
of the horrible wilderness
My Friend, after so many days
You have given me a glad news.
Your happiness born of the fact that
your mother is waiting for you
with dishes prepared by her own hand
in her own land -
that alone has caused the smile to sprout
in the faces of all those here
I am waiting for that.
How far/long my mother would be waiting.
For the permission to take me with her
For the loudspeaker which would call aloud
her/my name
Mother is waiting.
When the days are getting postponed
She tolerates it all.
How long/far she would be waiting -
I don't voice this as a query.
after all, aren't people returning to their homes...
2)
They have let her go out just today
She didn't go carrying any bag
to the fish-market
or to the cloth-shop.
That the return to the camp is inevitable
Mother doesn't deny.
She is always prepared to
get back to the camp and confine herself there.
That the way they have returned your houses
in your own hands
they would return ours too-
So Mother hopes and believes.
A friend of mine has asked the size of
the breadth of the door that has thrown open today.
What would you do if the thorny wires are again to be
tied together tight and taut - asks he.
I add this one also with the queries
we have not answered.
At the time when the Camps would be thrown open
the lenghth of the waitings of so many
would be known to one and all.
The tents with sorrows piled up
everyone would have seen.
Your Mother would surely be knowing well
the long wait of my Mother and myself.
the hapless people are let out
so that they can give something in return
that they have now
are but dried-up and weakened bones.
after the residual blood in the deep corners of
the bones too got sucked
what little remains of our bones
would be taken to our respective places.
Mother is prepared
to give even that.
Mother would bear with everything.
in this space
My Friend
your consolation
and happiness at going home
I do share with my Mother.
_____________________
(29.11.2009 for Sathish and his Mother)
They have let her go out just today
She didn't go carrying any bag
to the fish-market
or to the cloth-shop.
That the return to the camp is inevitable
Mother doesn't deny.
She is always prepared to
get back to the camp and confine herself there.
That the way they have returned your houses
in your own hands
they would return ours too-
So Mother hopes and believes.
A friend of mine has asked the size of
the breadth of the door that has thrown open today.
What would you do if the thorny wires are again to be
tied together tight and taut - asks he.
I add this one also with the queries
we have not answered.
At the time when the Camps would be thrown open
the lenghth of the waitings of so many
would be known to one and all.
The tents with sorrows piled up
everyone would have seen.
Your Mother would surely be knowing well
the long wait of my Mother and myself.
the hapless people are let out
so that they can give something in return
that they have now
are but dried-up and weakened bones.
after the residual blood in the deep corners of
the bones too got sucked
what little remains of our bones
would be taken to our respective places.
Mother is prepared
to give even that.
Mother would bear with everything.
in this space
My Friend
your consolation
and happiness at going home
I do share with my Mother.
_____________________
(29.11.2009 for Sathish and his Mother)
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