You and the crowd (Krishna Prasai)

Since you entered the city from the village

In search of development

You have walked on foot,

You have traversed for months

And moved about in your old shoes.

You have no car of your own,

If needed you take a bus,

You have no house of your own,

You stay in a rented apartment.

For many months you are seen in just one dress

And many days have passed

You are in your old beard,

You have no money.

Therefore, you are not regarded as a good son.

You have no job either

So you are not a successful father.

When you have no money

Forget about everything,

You are no longer a capable husband.

You have heard about foreign lands but never been there,

You have seen the planes but have never boarded in them,

Generally,

Things needed you fulfill through dreams.

This is the difference between you and others,

You are just you and there is a street for you to walk on

And there are high-rise buildings all around

With Mitsubishis, Marutis and Mercedes.

There are phones, files and fees too.

Everything is there, but you alone are nowhere.

When you are nothing, you no longer remain yourself

And become just a crowd.

There is a great difference between a man and a crowd –

A crowd has no principle,

A crowd follows no religion,

And a crowd has no rules to follow.

Sometimes a crowd is useful for watching some magic,

And sometimes a crowd gathers to listen to a speech,

And sometimes a crowd lines up to fill political processions.

—————————————————–

Being a watchman of light

At that time,

The whole heat was lost,

All the light had disappeared,

And all the warmth was stolen.

Even the Sun which distributed warmth equally

Had cooled down,

In whose presence

The existence of cold felt itself an orphan.

And at that time

Only sheltering the empires of the cold

The stars stayed awake in the sky.

And constantly hugging the only Moon under their arms,

They were showering dews,

Dropping the cold,

And throwing down frost.

With the pride of height

Bragging its power

The sky was intoxicated at that time,

Maybe, the sky was getting highly puffed up.

Even if several Springs descended

It always let the Autumn come to fruition,

And helped the snow rain

And sprinkled the cold wind.

The sky thus at that time

Was waiting for an opportunity

To swallow up our existence.

We the individuals on earth below

Were unable to get a clear majority,

For our right to live

In severe cold, under dark shades

Were cramped,

And with a view to bringing back

Our warmth robbed by the sky

Down to the earth

United together against the sky,

Tried constantly to fill the groups,

And raised our slogans.

Beware !

You, the sky, who rob the heat,

Now on don’t mock at us in any way –

We are humans and our right to exist as man

Don’t hatch conspiracies to snatch away.

Even up to that time

We standing in the demonstrations

Remained in search of heat –

And we were preparing ourselves to bring back

Our warmth-producing mechanisms

Snatched away by the sky.

• • • •

As this struggle continued,

Threatened with our voice,

Frightened by our crowds,

When it could do nothing to stop,

One day

The sky agreed for a compromise,

And our lights it had concealed

Was ready to return for us to the earth.

Thus the sky returned our warmth without any condition.

• • • •

Even now we are a group of people,

Who are enjoying the light

Thrown down on this Earth.

So that in no way would the sky

Rob us of the light again,

We are now firmly standing up

As the watchmen of light.

Translated by: Dr. Tara Nath Sharma