Aathmaanaam: Translations from Heaven and Hell

The Window Seeing and seeing again the darkness the eyes have darkened and bulked and dried Even if a small light ray arrives they were excited like a boon from a great penance The light ray that appeared like a moment's moment got tired and went into hiding saying do not feed on me for your gory hunger Thinking of the light ray that was never to be found anywhere the inner started searching the deeper The silly eye facing the darkness thinking that the dark space is better started researching the surface From the dream bane of the light ray hidden in some corner of the universe the whole body filled with eyes and each eye swelling and bulking in the dark everywhere a bloody battlefield Each eye was searching for the light ray Eyes everywhere eyes Each eye started battling saying that it was the first to be born for the light ray In utter darkness every eye started searching the other eye In the hope that anyway in...

Love In a world where love is hard to be seen cruelty is present immeasurably Blood oozes from her needle stricken fingers The needle that cut is pulsating The manager comes with his business talk Not even the love that is needed for treatment is there The clothes lie scattered everywhere Man is wandering naked all over the city in search of love with fear

That Tamarind Tree From yesterday they have been felling that tamarind tree At first they reached the tamarind tree's top They broke the small branches As the leaves and flowers fell the small branches embraced the earth Upon losing its small branches the tree with it's formless form was sucking on the sky Climbing down the tree they brought a colossal tree saw They were scraping off the tamarind tree aiming at it's bottom with the sawdust flowing on either sides They brought down the tall tree Cutting off They cut off the remaining branches and arranged them in order Placing them in the cart they started Between the bushes a tamarind sapling looked at itself Note: ஒரு புளியமரத்தின் கவிதை

A movement Sound arose Slowly it moved It was possible to follow the sound In a while it merged on the main road In noise the sound lost form and started shouting and rolling like a round ball with the other formless sound particles Kasa Pisa Kuka Keke Pike Dakku Pukku All the round balls from the various arterial roads came together and circling over the city they scratched the sky and were exiting New new sound particles turning into round balls were going to the Celestia I caught hold of a sound particle snatched it and swallowed it like a tablet Everywhere within the sound particles were running and playing I entered into the main road with veins bloated I became like a ball Rolling and bulking I rose up Scratching the sky scratching the space beyond the beyond I was travelling With light and darkness as two eyes I was able to be at the back on the front on both sides on all four sides Body of light Vast space Everywhere ...

The talk I can drive a cycle I can drive a bus I can drive an auto-rickshaw Caught between the buses the auto will topple I can drive a car Hitting the bus the car will crumple I will run and sit on the driver's lap Oh yeah accept it let's all go in a bus Note : What a playfully beautiful poem

The foreigners The foreigners have arrived said the helper Let them inside I said Removing their hats two came in I asked them to remove their footwear and come in Switching on the A.C. I asked them what they wanted Whiskey they said I told them it is all local here They turned around the letters on the table and said what are these Indian letters I told them those were all translations Laughingly they asked who was he who asked Can the prosperous Tamilians suffer What for that now I asked In Estonian language and Swahili we have come here to translate that they said From the paper bundles that lay like garbage I took out it's translation The local arrived

The suburban A day when no one is expected no great work to do was able to turn a few pages The audio player played time went by Evening siting on the stairs the world was moving in sweat A woman of the Kurava tribe picks her firewood the schoolgirls without their uniforms the cows that eat papers the humans who have skewed faces from their crumpling work on the returning buses Some clear faces on the starting buses my radio is heard With the small organizations peace prevails The evening dailies roam around in furore In the tea stalls politics is served hot with no partiality to any party The common man is satisfied Apparent riot confusion mystery with nothing of this sort The suburban crawls in peace