Ahuti

Red 'Terrorist' Answers White Terrorist


Written: 24 Baisakh, 2058 vikram samvat [May 2001];
Original Title: Seto Aatankakarilaai Raato 'Aatankakaari'ko Jawaaph;
Translated: from the Nepali by Mary Des Chene;
Published in: Janadesh;
Transcribed: for marxists.org August, 2002.


 

Against the white terror you spread

        sans notice

        through my settlement

Before your rule

        having given notice

openly present

        I am a 'terrorist'

        murder me if you can!


After sniffing the fragrance

        of flaming revenge ablaze

        atop the graves

        of my mother

                                father

                                        grandmother

                                                        grandfather,

        generation upon generation of my lineage

after spreading the ashes

        of yearnings

        for a beautiful life

                I've come

Today I've not come

        to ask for a thing

I've come to stir up

        an earthquake of terror

        in your heavenly joy

I am the 'terrorist' of your heaven

        murder me if you can!


Under your empire

        my father never begged

                your Narayanhiti palace

        never begged

                the pearl-studded glittering crown of your line

        never begged for my mother

                the diamond-studded ring

                of your wife's ring finger

To build a Taj Mahal

        upon the fresh blood of slaves

        in memory of a stale love

is not the custom of my lineage

But this was begged

        laying prostrate before you

one hot meal, one warm shelter

a fistful of happy sighs, dying a carefree breath

for me the cost of cheap sandals

for little sister cheap cough syrup

for mother rough homespun

        to cloak her body

in this world

        a small free life

        as the part of human beings!

After spilling buckets

        of sweat and blood

did my father not retain

        this much right?


Under your great 'democracy'

        I never requested

                your Singhadarbar

never requested

        the boudoirs of your summer and winter concubines

never requested

        your retainers' landed estates

never requested

        your expensive cars

        the classrooms of your childrens' foreign schools

the dance club where your daughter prances

        was never requested

never requested

        deeds to five star hotels or beer factories

        five storey buildings or bottles of liquour

never requested for my wife

        your wife's pearl necklace

never requested

        the nipple of the wet-nurse

        that streamed milk to your children

To let out our children for rearing

        is not the custom of my lineage!

But this was requested

        palms pressed together

a yoke of bullocks and a cowshed

a strip of earth to turn and a plough

work and a shelter to keep body and soul together

cheap copy and pen for the children

cheap salve for the wife's cracked feet

small liberated life free of the debt of the poor

After giving over to your rule

        all of life's creations

did I not retain

        this much right?


But time after time

        every time

after the gracious entreaty of my lineage/

        after my quiet request

I had to pass

        crying sleepless hungry nights

        with my little daughter

I had to measure

        laboured breathing

        of a son suffocated by pneumonia

had to endure

        sighs in the eyes of couples

        whose love perpetual anguish has crushed

Forever and a day

        at the hearth of my lineage

        I've endured

                hopes severed in youth

Forever and a day I've carried

                laid prostrate by endless hopes

                laid flat by endless kicks

        the cold corses of kin/

        blood-soaked cold cold corpses!


But today

        all requests are at an end

Not one

        plea of mine for mercy

        lies before you now

Make all preparations!

gather explosives, leg-irons, handcuffs or loaded rifles

make speeches, conspire, propagandize fully against me

Laying down all requests

        I've come to murder you

come to murder your beautiful 'democracy'

come to challenge your god

        who would write the fate of my lineage

After sniffing the fragrance

        of flaming revenge ablaze

        atop the graves

        of generation upon generation of my lineage

after spreading the ashes

        of yearnings

        for a beautiful life

                I've come

For all time

        my lineage is the 'terrorist' of your heaven

        Murder my lineage if you can!

_______________

*Narayanhiti: palace of the Nepali monarchy.

Singhadarbar: formerly a palace of the Rana autocracy (1846-1950); now houses the parliament [parliament disbanded by Prime Ministerial and Royal fiat in order to extend State of Emergency, May 2002].