People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Vol. XXVI

No. 20

May 26,2002


           Peer-e-Tasma-Pa

           (Old Man with Tied Legs)

 

Riding my shoulders, someone chants

Bible and Vedas and Qura’an

Flies keep buzzing near my ear;

With ears of mine so injured,

My own voice how can I hear!

 

Rana was a Hindu, Akbar a Mussalman;

Sanjay is the first man so far

Who invented TV in Hastinapur in B.C. age

And showed to the blind king scenes of the war.

 

What if man has landed on the moon!

No progress it’s, for long time back

Someone traveled from earth to sky

When no comet was as yet seen,

No spring of skills had there been.

 

These and many other talks ignorant

Ride my shoulders now and then.

My height gets reduced night and day

Will my head touch the feet of mine?

 

(Freehand translation by Naresh Nadeem)