THE GLOOM OF PEACE WHEREIN CHILDREN SUFFER DEFEAT

By Deebachelvan
[English translation of his poem titled KUZHANDHAIGALTHOERKKADIKAPADUGIRA SAMAADHAANATHIN NIZHAL (Translated into English by latha ramakrishnan )

___________________
The city devovoured by War
is reconstructed by the Communique of Peace.
On the day when
the flowers and birds had been uprooted
the white-lane stood open.
With all eyes filled to the brim
with War
hands turned upside down keep wandering in our town.

During the time when words
designed by evil strategies
were being mutually uttered
taking turns-
filled with bombs-
the cement wall had grown
closing down on the heart.
With the light of various times
taken away, with no particle left,
The wandering dream is
tied inside
polythene bags.

Tasting defeat
and experiencing the anguish of failure,
the Earth’s all-pervading fragrance
turns to nought.
After everyone spoke and left,
with the bullets bursting out
scattering all ove
The Words remained yearning
as ever.

Under the Peace that
was celebrating War
Children could see
the lurking and growing
Danger
The shadow of Peace
Is shrouding everybody.
Peace slowly eats
The eyes of children.
Sand-cities keep emerging.

With hamlets buried deep
The endless displacement
Keeps sketching the land.
On the river floats
The boat that brooms and collects
The city.
First, the illumination of words
Being kept hidden in a
Mire without a way to escape
The whole spacious sky
With Time downfallen
Pours
But Gloom everywhere.

In the shade of Peace
The city of letters burns
And turns to ashes.
The children, caught
With the might of gun
were being piled up
in the military wagons.
Standing in front
Were tankers all set
To pour out shells.

Deceiving Hopes
Deceiving Expectations
Words cause Wars;
Stamping on our long wait
there explode new bombs.
The children
witnessing everything
are shaken to the core.

In the late evening hours
that had grazed on the patio,
The old man
identifying the odour
is won over.

Poisonous fruits sprout on
Time
and turn ripe.
Wth the riffles searching for
Human-preys
Death makes closeness easy.
With snakes
Blossoming all over the tree
Thick and dense
The Pond gets fille dup
With poison.
On the rivers
The target of down-fall gushes forth.
The Cannons are ready.
The tankers begin to move.
The riffles straighten themselves
and stand erect.

Tearing off and throwing away
the Words
and getting loaded with
explosives
the passenger-plane unloads them
here.
Peace, prevailing in the white lanes
designs the pattern of War.
In the City devoid of children-
dead and annihilated-
The Communique of Peace
is proclaiming the Defeat of
Children.
_________________

COME, TO LIVE THE LIFE OF THE DISPLACED

A poem by Deepachelvan
Translation of the Tamil poem titled ‘ Nilam Peyarndhalaiya Vandhuvidu’
(Translated into English by latha ramakrishnan)
_____________
The field that could escape
has brought you here.
On the sea-shore where
the bag you have to carry along
lies
the wind gathers.

With no playful kiss,
with no wandering in cycle,
with Life oppressed to the core
by War
You have been taken away
by the battle-field.
The gun forcibly placed
in your hands
is eating your own self.

Elder brother’s tomb alone
remained an asset;
With his dream shattered
his tomb had also broken.
Now, there is no house
for any of us to live on.
Like our dear elder brother
and like his dream
we keep wandering.

Losing everything
and moving from place to place
in these terrorizing nights
You, whom we have been safe-guarding
as our very own treasure
Oh, what to do with the
Fate that forces us
to see You being dragged away.



How would you shoot at
the foe
who keeps displacing us
as ever before?
At a tender age
when you can’t realize anything,
can’t understand things
War is entrusted in your hands.
The gun forced into your hands
keeps burning the soft heart.
The piece of land that still remains
surrenders to the enemy.

Such a Poem as this
Such a fear-instilling night
Why should they have come upon me?
In the end my words
lie there, belied.
Henceforth, will I write a
War-Poem where children
fight as warriors?

To be in the midst of
Shells, shivering, together
I need you.
Who has dragged you away?
They resembled my beloved elder brother.
He had deep love for you
The way he loved his Native Land.

Hidden in the machine-guns, Our Children -
So my mother observes.

Now, our City is no more
Nor, our Life.
And, bereft of everything
We too cease to be.
Yet, I need You
to share the small quantity of food
half-cooked
And the pulses
boiled in water.

Come soon
Let’s move on
All the more displaced.
_____________________________________

INSIDE THE BARBED WIRE THE BURIED VILLAGE

A poem by Deebachelvan

Translated into English by latha ramakrishnan
__________________
Even the lone well
That cannot be shared by everyone
The barbed-wire pierced
And entwined.
With the coconut-thatches
hanging upside down
wherever you see
The empty shells of the
Bombs exploded
are scattered.

The heat of the Sun arriving, invading the tents at will
With the sun swallowing the heads
Whose crowns are snatched away
The words keep hanging on
The barbed-wire.

On the seat made of
Spreading even, the boxes sans
Explosives
You and I are placed.
Without our knowledge
The Clock keeps munching
The hours
Granted to Us.

Looks like
There is a bomb underneath the seat
ever-ready to explode
Again and again
Umpteen number of times
The heart breaks with
the splinters scattering everywhere.

In the loudspeaker that keeps
Blaring the digits all the time
The Words
That somebody longs and
Struggles to utter
Reach the altar
And stand there, patiently bearing.
The ears that are given away
To the loudspeakers
Feel as if someone is calling.

Left alone and abandoned
With his kith and kin
Taken away in different directions
With the search for them is still on
Their whereabouts unknown
The boy looks at everyone.
With no way left to escape
The barbed-wire is tightly strung
On all isdes.

With machine guns
standing in line
In surveillance
watching those terror-struck faces
The deep sorrow of being
left in the lurch
in deadly horror
keeps spreading to the brim
in the end of endless
searching in vain
the little boy lets his
head hang on the
barbed-wire.

In the emptiness of not meeting
Anyone
The light and heat of
Sun alone remains
All-pervading.
With the loud-speaker, spent-out
Turning silent
The Sun goes past the village
Retiring for the day.
As the night arrives
The village, hopelessly stuck
Anguished and entangled
Is being buried.

______________________

05.07.2009

THE TROOPS DEVURING A BIG CITY

--------------------------------------------------
by deebachelvan

the days of carrying
Your baggages
have come again
the troops encircling
the big city
return with corpses.

what load are you carrying
on my old bicycle?
I left it the day
the troops entered
now you are using it
to cart my belongings.

the day snakes surrounded
the margosa tree
the day the mango tree
shed bullets
the courtyard was riddled
by firing.

the kid which lost its mother
in the shelling
is crouching
in the hole
under the guava tree.

since yesterday
the troops have been
gnawing the city
in whose dust
you used to roll

the town
where I used to roam
on my bike
has lost the feet
with no space to loaf
the paths under seege

float in the jungle
heads glued to baggages.

in the lakes
leading to our homes
lie the carcasses
of cattle
wells lie closed.

the tank approaches
bulldozing the recently
built town
the bagger
the pipelines
and the power supply
in the sky appears.

not the sun
but the heli
the dawn corree
through the smoke
rising from the bombs
oblivious of your wandering
without even water
I exist.
------------------------------------------
18.09.2008

THE OPERATION AFTER THE RESPITE

--------------------------------------------------
by deebachelvan

you’re tired
using the lone phone
in the deserted city
dialing numbers
the calendar and the clock
on the mud-wall
of the roofless house
lie turned.

your very last hope
is dying out
under the poovarasu tree.
you’re counting the days
of your return
on the abandoned gates
and the belongings left behind.


couldn’t figure out
a word from your lament
but your language
was mutilated
in the president’s UN speech
as the sounds of the wail
and the pavements you
trudged on.

are interpreted as laughter
heads nod
finding the fowl
and the chicks left behind
dead
the bats hanging upside down
weep.

everyone evacuated the city
by yesterday.

the hungry boy who chased the UN
(relief) vehicle
was detained at the
oman thai checkpoint
your hunger was written
on the flour bag
that hid the bomb.

you look up
as if the sky has deceived you
not realizing
that your time is up
with the resumption
of army operations
------------------------------------------

THE CITY’S CONDEMNED CHAIRS

--------------------------------------------------
by deebachelvan

there was love of life
there were dreams about flowers.

after demolishing
the walls of this town
the announwment
about the burial of the houses
as dreams about flowers wither
the solution is reached
by smashing the rows of chairs

when the procamation
to demolish
the flower growing city
was announced
the ancient great walls trembled.

in the blasted glass mansions
consecrated to bombers
lie broken tables
still wet with
tea stains.

when everyone had gone
leaving the chairs broken
the neighboring mango trees
fell down, broken.

the rules of the war game
kept changing
being revised often.

in the mansions erected
at the end of the third war
lay hidden
the fourth war
that would demolish them.

02
in the hospital
at the centre of the city
which experienced
showers of shelling
the injured patient’s moan
encapsulated.

the wail of a population
while the flowers’ dreams.

are supposed to vanish
with this city
its citizens deaths
and the slain fighters
the nation dances
to the rolling war drum.

the time all are declared terrorists
the remaining flowers wither
and the order given
to destroy the city
in the broken arms of chairs
sprout arms.

there was love of life
there were dreams about flowers.
------------------------------------------
05.10.2008

The war begins from the Childen’s dreams

-------------------------------------------------

by deebachelvan
----------------------------------------------
01.
The militants
withdrew from Madhu.

The war begins
from the dreams
of children
who ate poisoned food

In the numberless evacuations
which make
movement difficult
thier kit bags lost
people crowd under trees.

The war hasn’t broken out.

02
The militans have withdrawn
from Iluppaikadavai.
The State’s war
comes
chasing the terrorists
Some children
drenched the whole night
under the trees
have gone to the front

When the children felt
the thrust of war
the exam papers
slipped from their hands
and fluttered away

By the time
the dry plates
and the clothes
had slipped
from the people under the trees
The President’ statement
gloating over his victory
was released

03
The militant’s withdrew
From Vidathalthivu.

The pamphlets
she aircrafts dropped
startled the children
who were dreaming of
roast peanuts.

All should know
about war.

04
The militants withdrew
from Mulankavil
In the security web
appeared pictures
of captured villages
all ravaged.

We saw
beheaded coconut trees
broken cooking pots
abandoned graves
The war had chased everyone
It had entered every nook
05

People were chased away
from Mallavi and Thunukkai

When the war began
to capture a temple
We lost our very hands
that would rise in prayer
nay, we lost our prayers

The state opened refugee camps

The monsoon will come
We wait under the trees
to get drenched
to be washed away

The bunds
of Vavunikkulam
are damaged
Kilinochchi is now
a city of refugees
Pali will rise to inundate the fields.

The war begins
from the dreams
of children
who ate poisoned food.

----------------------------------
20.08.2008
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bunker life

A family is in bunker