IN THE CAPITAL CITY THE GHOSTS EAT THE MOUNTAINS

A poem by Deebachelvan in Thamizh titled
THALAI NILATHIL MALAIGALAI THINNUM PEIGAL
[தலை நிலத்தில் மலைகளை தின்னும் பேய்கள்]
Translated into English by Latha Ramakrishnan

The mountains too remain fallen.
So does the Land.
Can’t wash the face in the pond
Ghosts remain with eyes closed in the lotuses
Wandering without vision we go
banging against the ghosts and fall down.

A mammoth ghost is sitting on ‘Trincomalee’.
The king has ordered the ghosts to eat the capital land
daily.
And, in this time when the ghosts eat so and revel,
dancing in the capital city
Faces wither, unable to bear the ugliness of it all.

In the ancient city there is none.
Those who had been chased away
from the all-beautiful city
are yet to return from refugee camps.
In the City of Mountains, under the mountains
the ghosts sleep with cunning schemes.
Slicing the mountains and land they send it to the King

In the shade of Buddha who keeps wandering
with his feet on the mountains
the Buddhist Flags fly.
In the streets where Sinhalese is being applied
the towns being killed and converted into new ones.
With our faces go rotting along with our eyes
in the pond where eyes sprout, riffles swim.

With Butham Saranam craving cruelly to eat away
the Sacred Land
The ships that steal the mountains surround the sea-port.
In the ‘Mahavali’ river ghosts come in boats and settle.
Our lives thrown into Maavilaaru drowned deep into the sea.

The flag of the ghosts that are eating the flag of our fort
has covered, along with the State, the capital city also.
With dream never-ending becomes the delicious food of ghosts
the mountains with the people of the ancient land
where the flag swayed fell off.
and the State too.

27.02.2011