Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Hunger:Namdeo Dhasal

Namdeo Dhasal

Hunger

Hunger
Unable to do this ione thing  and able
To solve or not solve theorems
Will hunger –fires forge a poem?
Will music die in the fire of hunger?
How difficult music is
To him who cannot count the best of his own pulse.
Who hadn’t thought that fees couldn’t be claimed
For singing songs of hunger.
Hunger
A fruitless thing
However hard you work
The reward is still stones
If stones cannot build a house
We’ll not manage to live in it.
Hunger you are mouse, cat, lion in turn
How long can mere mortals like us stand
I this game that you’ve set up?

2.

Hunger
a shrewd peace is growing everywhere
this is the beginning of our new life sentence
hunger forgive us that we cannot cut the tree of time
but even cut, the sky will still be blue.
To which market can we carry dumb hearts?
Where auction them
Where day sweeps life
Who will buy crushed hearts
Who will profit by the deal?
Hunger, tell us your game, your strategy
If we can muster guts enough
We’ll fight you to the finish
Can’t crawl and grovel on our stomachs
Too long with you
How much can we wash the grime off hunger?
How much wash the dust off years?
How much scorn to the very ends of scorn?
Hunger, if a bridge of iron will not join you to us
Then let us fly free like unfettered birds
Hunger, your land , the thorns upon your land,
Fester in the brain all night
Till the brain itself freezes.
Hunger, when a thing is taken from the fridge
Is it still fresh?
Hunger your every blood drop is cold
Your every blood drop is mute
Order, let lightening course through the guts
Order, let life get charged
Wounded seas and the long moans of our demands
Hunger, say yes to our dreams
Don’t snuff out the orphan huts upon the shore
We’ll see later
The gold-threaded struggle
Between the snail of pain and the sea.

3.

Hunger
we have made our demand
let you need us
will we never grow?
Let us grow
The sun may blithely have forgotten dawn
The river may blithely have forgotten time
We wanted more from light
Than mere life
But light turned false.
Hunger,
We will not allow a column of cloud to stand,
Indifferent, to our door
How much more can we thank
Pain the music in pain
If we have not made ourselves a tidy life
What right do we have to quarrel with the flowers?
How much can we excite pain
How much can we burn
How much can we catch the fire that burns forever?
If our words find no expression
In this stream of sun
We’ll salute you like defeated soldiers
Whoever said that every soldier in the army
Fights like a man?

4.
Hunger,
There’s not a single grain in our house today
not a single clever brain in our house today
hunger
if one sings till the last light of the innermost being
will it turn off hunger-light?
Hunger if one takes care of you now
Will it darken?
Hunger, your style is your own
No other calamity comes our way
But you.
Hunger, if we cannot mate you
Cannot impregnate you
Our tribe will have to kill itself
Hunger we have all the aces
Why talk of the songs of the half-sexed jacks?
Here’s our manhood before you now,
Let’s see who wins this round
You or we.

5.

Hunger
which came first, seed or tree?
Hunger you make things too difficult
Hunger just tell us what breed this monkey is
And if you can’t
Then we will screw
Seventeen generations of you
Hunger, you and your mother..


Translated by Shanta Gokhale

10 comments:

  1. Hello,

    We are students at AzimPremji University, Bangalore currently pursuing our masters degree. We are very interested in Namdeo Dhasal's marathi works and have been trying to find some of it on the internet and other places. Can you help us find some of his marathi original works because we are encountering more of english translations.
    We particularly wanted his work 'Man You Should Explode' in Marathi, I think it is called 'Mansaane'.

    It would be very kind of you if you could send us the original work or direct us to any place where we can access it.

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. While surfing Namdeo Dhasal on internet I came across your request a bit late off course ,please let me know whether you still need some of his Marathi works . My cell number is 9869428832
    MAHENDRA

    ReplyDelete
  3. I need summary if this poem...l'm not able to find anywhere

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  4. I want summary of this poem habit by FM shinda. Urgent

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  5. Yes, this poem is a political ,economic and social exploitation . So this sense of hunger is actually personified by Namdeo Dhasal

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  6. it is a translation from which marathi poem

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  7. I need of this poem summary . Pls snd it

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  8. I need one poem titled 'Poetry Notebook' . it is translated from Marathi. Kindly share if anyone has this poem . Thank you .

    ReplyDelete