THE KING DENOUNCED BY THE DEFEATED PEOPLE

A poem in Tamil by DEEBACHELVAN titled
THOERKADIKKAPATTA MAKKALAAL NIRAAGARIKKAPPATTA ARASAN

Translated into English by latha ramakrishnan
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We had been defeated from Time Immemorial
The Great Grand Emperor defeating the
hapless people who had denounced him for his
deeds that smelt of foul Power
has ascended the throne.
It is from deceptions that he has won a Wholesome Form
The faces have been burnt for all times
Who have won
and who have lost -
The children begin to declare
Before all the kings
Before all the victories
Before the results too we have lost
Our Sky crashes down.

In the Seat made of many a deceit
The Great Grand Emperor sitting,
From the Time of Fear
Into the Emergency Period of
Terror and terrible suppression, annihilation
we are(un)settled in.
This too has settled as a cursed evening
Destroyed to the core
by Assurances, guarantees
exploited by Agreements and Treatises
and thus cheated as never before
In the bitter rivalry of Power
The very Life has been torn and thrown away.

For everything
we are going to kneel down before him
He who has devovoured voices
sings on our behalf
He who refuses to listen to words
would be strewing words all over tomorrow
He is going to smile again
He is going to curse us in our own-tongue.
The crops to sprout are lost forever
The fertile Time, he had fed upon.

The people are losing from the very beginning.
From thee fallen generation
There is not even a tiny gap of Time to do anything
with an iota of earnestness.
For our street and courtyard
We have to beg him.
For us to live on we have to
serve him in return.
At frist
We had met with a colossal defeat amidst ourselves
And, since then we have been losing out to them
steadily.

Directions, Moments, Words, Hearts,
Spaces, Holes
as separate entities
are being sacrificed.

Time is determined by him
In the Great Grand Emperor’s grazing ground
as meek goats
with no directions nor dwelling sheds
We keep wandering
Blocking the words he has tied the mouth shut
Today someone has won
someone has lost
Losing Time forever, children are being deceived
day in and day out
Defeat pursues us from time immemorial…
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