~Bijay Malla~
Blood marks the red borderlines,
of plains that belong to every nation
like terraces in the field!
This is India, and this Pakistan
and this, the great line ‘tween
marked by the blood of the Hindus and the Muslims!
This is Germany, and this England,
this Russia, and this Japan.
See this Hiroshima, and Nagasaki
close by devoured by atom bomb!
This the European carcass
terrorized by the ghost of Hitler.
This is America
the land of dollars
the maker of the atom bomb
the peace message.
Everywhere,
red blood demarcates the lines
and men are trapped within,
as are pigeons inside a cage.My Daughter,
(such a day might come someday)
when, united everyone
hand-in-hand,
arm-in-arm
Negroes, Aryans and the Mongols
Palestinians, Dravidians and the Blacks,
will pour the fills of their eyes,
and wash these lines of blood.
And then,
after a long time –
my daughter, a day might come,
when you will not find the red line
for thousand searches.
———————-About Bijay Malla ————————-
Literary name: Bijaya Malla
Name: Bijaya Bahadur Malla
Date of birth/place: 1925, Kathmandu
Death: 2001
Literary debut: Around 1936/37
About his poetics
On poetry: “Let poetry or prose (I consider them of the same order) honestly inaugurate and lift every aspect of life, entertaining the mass. Let them debate with them, fight, and show : you are not mere mortals with sensibilities; rather, your responsibilities have come up with your very birth as humans; you are a human, your consciousness stands in front of you, and you cannot cheat yourself! With death, the only weapon of your life, you ought to fight longer albeit by a moment.” (Courtesy: Srashta ra Sahitya)
Self estimation: “I justify my living, yet I am incomplete…. But it is not as weak as glass that breaks as soon as it falls.” (Courtesy: Srashta ra Sahitya)
Source: Dancing Soul of Mount Everest : Creator & Creation (Selected Modern Nepali Poems)
