I will Belong to It:Arjun Dangle

Arjun Dangle

I will Belong to It

That one should, at masturbating age,

Sit twisting rope instead

And at the age of eternal gazing

Upon a moonlike face

Wander the town wearing down soles

At playing-with-grandchildren age

Let disease play upon one’s self.

Is this my life?

There, outside the village,

It is my blood that rots

Here in this lean-to I

Am the city edition of that same blood.

To whom can I tell this?

To the soil here?

The soil which has not allowed

The footprint of my existence

To make its mark upon her yet?

To the sun and moon here

Who wrench away the rays that fall upon my home?

To whom…to whom. shall I tell?

In the land of fifty eight crores

This is how I must continue to live,

Who will listen to whose agony

In this density of people?

I want a life

That has the vital sap

I want a soil

That, smeared on the brow,

Will bring tears to the eyes

I want a sun and a moon

Who will with their rays lasso me to them and caress

I don’t want mere crowds, mere land

I want for it a name whose meaning

May engrave itself on my heart,

And gently blow upon my endless pain.

It will belong to me and I belong to it.

Translated by Shanta Gokhale