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Seshendra Sharma
The
Line Aflame
Maybe,
you're a mere piece of wood;
yet you're the sole symbol
of the Great Human Endeavour
soaring aloft
from time immemorial.
Maybe, 'ploughshare' is your name ---
but, in truth, you are
the blazing alphabet,
falling onto the earth
from the skyline,
liberating yourself
from the semantics of stars.
Your tender touch awakens
the fragrance of dreams
slumbering under the soil
and sprinkles the corners of the cosmos !
The woods, the mountains,
the rivers and the bushes ---
all bow to your might.
Surrendering joyously
to your valour irresistible,
with a throb of thrill,
the earth gifts away bounteously
the fruit, the energising shade
and the song eternal.
Truly have you drawn
on the story of today
on the last page of history,
amidst hustling humanity,
the sole blazing line !
Announcing,
the lazing thieves of time
shall be men of work, too,
you promise for the world
of toiling masses
a resurgent, refulgent Sun !
Translated by S. S. Prabhakar
My
Land
The battles that are fought
by our people
known or unknown
are for the grains...
They all march towards history.
Even the seas cannot obstruct
their passage.
Springtime will sprout
on their footsteps, there will be
sunrise from their fists...
I do not know you
my country
but your blood
runs through my body...
The rivers and the poets---
arteries of geography :
the rivers flow
like poems
for the beasts, for the birds
and for men.
the dreams that rivers dream
makes the fields yield,
the dreams that poets dream
are realised in men...
One artery does not suffice
the body,
one river is not enough
for a country...
At night my hand
turns into a river
and goes on flowing...
When letters sprout
in the delta of paper,
along with the ploughman
the entire country gets changed...
Like sunlight
my imagination casts a glow
on words...
its long shadow
falls on the century...
The sun plays with dawn-flowers.
Time is frightened
by the advent of the hero...
Seshen,
you are born for the oppressed
you turn into words
and reach one and all...
You realise the great banyan
under the shade of the rose plant.
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