THE LAND GNAWED AND EATEN BY THE VERMIN

A Poem in Thamizh by Deebachelvan titled
POOCHI ARITHUNNUM NILAM
[பூச்சி அரித்துண்ணும் நிலம்]

Translated into English by Latha Ramakrishnan

The worms and insects that had gnawed and eaten away the houses
Finished swallowing the dry-sticks along with the green trees
The giant vermin that keeps walking and wandering
on top of the ever multiplying worms and insects
devovours ‘Poovarasam’ trees and dance devilishly.
Lifting up the babies on the razor-edge of sharpened swords
they throw them up so high, playing merrily.

In dense nights they finish eating up the people
buried deep underneath the soil, with their dreams,
and go searching for the traces and rip them apart.
With the hues and shades that scatter off the vermins
the very colour of our Land has changed.

Hauling the dream so cruelly sabotaged
into a mammoth bundle
It goes away, rolling it along.
All the worms and insects go wandering
with hunger unleashed
and chop off Earth’s branches.
And the giant vermin
in full view of one and all
open all too wide its many a mouth
and gobble up the ancestral Land.

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