THE LAND WHERE BIRDS HAVE FALLEN

English translation of Deepachelvan’s poem in Thamizh

titled PARAVAIGAL VEEZHNDHA NILAM

[பறவைகள் வீழ்ந்த நிலம்]
Translated into English by Latha Ramakrishnan

Till how long I would be singing of Land alone?
Till the time I am uprooted
Till the time I keep the land safely held in the hands of children
I would go on singing the Land alone.
In the woods of birds
the children have kept hidden the words of the Land.

Today in that soil
with the birds falling down, writhing in pain
alien clans have planted themselves.
The children who keep searching for some birds
still to be hanging suspended from those trees
felled and wounded
keep Falling into the Pits-Politics of Land-Grabbing.

When we were being chased away from the Land
all the birds too had fallen.
The alien-clans that eat the heart of the soil
swallowed the seas.
The lions that entered as machines hunted down the Land.

With the tales written by the feet pressed afresh
on the seashore
the fish of the boy’s pond
suffered a painful death.
In the villages vanquished with foreign names
Peace is being eaten away by the wisdom of Buddha.
Even after having experienced the worst
and have come to fall
the children keep singing
the songs of our Soil.
How can I remain silent
without singing our children’s loss of the land?