ANANDHAPURAM: VALOUR POISONED AND BURNT

A poem in Thamizh by Deebachelvan titled
ANANDHAPURAM: NANJU PARUKKAPPATTU KARUKKAPPATTA VEERAM
[ஆனந்தபுரம் : நஞ்சு பருக்கப்பட்டு கருக்கப்பட்ட வீரம்]

Translated into English by Latha Ramakrishnan

In those days the Land was languishing; feeling forlorn; forsaken.
With children engaged in war in the battle-front
that lay under siege
mothers, brothers and all other dear and near ones
were terrorized by the impending danger of war.
Turning their very life into veritable fence
They stood firm on the ground.

Those dream-heroes adorned
the tales of victorious battles.
Kind face
Words drenched in love
The courage and valour of fighting for the people –
Everything was sucked out by deadly poison.
Thanks to those selfless and straight-forward warriors
Thanks to their dream-filled thoughts and ideas
the Great Land is wearing a grand wholesome green hue.

The trap that caught them
had all sorts of scheming strategies; technologies.
And they fought a long time to defeat them all.
The battle-front endangered by evil plans
darkening with the shadow of Death
went on warning, cautioning,
with its all consuming desire to
destroy the Dream

The birds were caught in the thorns and were
fluttering in vain; deep pain.
The children fell into the trenches and
were struggling to come out.
The soft little deer so pitiably entrapped
inside the killer-machines
were on the throes of death.

with the Land being stuck inside the trap
with cunning schemes hatched and inscribed
all the fences turning into terrible threats
keep wounding the flowers and enjoying it.
The forest where lives burn smelt acutely everywhere.

For children who had eaten dream
the dosage of poison has been increased.
.
The deadly poison poured on
and burnt the
courage and valour, nourished and raised
in dream-filled smile,
in those eyes
in the eyes and in its vision filled with ambition
in the intense desire for Independence_
is flowing out and
turning the land all drenched.

Blood had spread, stuck glued, dried up and darkened
in the bodies piled up in Aanandhapuram
with the poison-administered bodies the Great Land
turning poisonous
the courage and valour nourished so well
lay there scorched and scarred.

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