Five Tamil Dalit poems.

Rajkumar, N. T.

Five Tamil Dalit Poems

 1

 For the family
 to gain religious merit
 in the next life,
 they fed the poor full of rice.
 Then, when the girl from Kollathi
 began to wash the dishes
 in the back lot,
 she was forced into intercourse.
 After feeding on her
 the Brahmin promised to come
 in his next life, too.
 She killed herself and
 now comes
 as the goddess of Kollangottu,
 screaming for human sacrifice.

 Lusting after women and gold,
 he married the dancer with lies of love
 then stoned her to death
 amid the thorns
 of the cactus fields.
 You are my witnesses, she cried
 to the cacti as she died.
 The dark-blue goddess of the cactus fields
 demands blood-filled rice,
 transmogrifies into the midnight
 goddess Isaki.

 2

 If anyone not of our own
 happens to read this manuscript:
 Heads will roll
 hearts will beat to death
 brains will curdle.
 All that one has learned
 will be lost.
 Now,
 I have placed curses
 on my own words.

 3

 Oh, you devil,
 I have caught you at last
 and nailed you to the neem tree.
 But on another night
 while I was deep in sleep
 you cracked the tree open
 and came out
 to play the magical witchery:
 You licked the live blood
 and laughed softly.
 I called upon the mantras
 in your name, in mine,
 in the name of the One
 who created both of us
 to imprison you
 in me.
 Today, my love,
 you are my angel.

 4

 Dancing cobra eyes
 twist into the body
 striking at the comer
 of the soul
 asleep, sticking one's tongue out
 on those full-moon nights

 Drunk with the saliva
 sucked from the dripping mouth,
 my poisonous poetry
 scattered like
 fragrant flowers.
 Frightened
 to smell them alone
 you bring to your aid
 those soaring birds of prey.
 Denying Siva this time,
 standing on the power of the
 god of anger,

 I tease the kites.
 Ask them, are you well?
 You fly away,
 disappear in the distance
 like a dot.

 I cannot touch
 the shadow of your wing.
 I will be born
 again and again.
 As a devil,
 a ghost,
 as Kali,
 and Isaki.
 As the vengeful furies
 I will terrorize you and follow you--

 5

 She sated my hunger
 you satisfied my lust
 I'd grown up
 like a water buffalo
 but I am her baby
 I want a child unlike me
 the burning fire that you
 put out with your body
 my dearest wife
 Put down your raised fist
 I am breathless
 Just give me the word
 and I will kill my mother
 with poisoned rice.

Translation from the Tamil By Anushiya Sivanarayanan

Editorial note: Selections from twelve poems by N. T. Rajkumar, "Paninrendhu Kavithaigal," Dalit 4 (1998): 76-81