CPN(M) - Worker #10

The Worker, #10, May 2006
Ten Years Special

The Prisoner And Chandragiri

Krishna Sen "Ichchuk"

[The following is an excerpt from a longer poem written by Krishna Sen. It is addressed to Chandragiri, a mountain overlooking the prison on the south. Krishna Sen is a well-known progressive poet and was the Chairman of the All Nepal People's Cultural Association. He was martyred in military custody in 2002. —Ed.]

Beloved Chandragiri!
At this moment of happiness
lost in eternal feelings
with yearning eyes
I behold you time and again.

This moment of happiness
may be a dim memory tomorrow
just as the memory of those arrested and disappeared day after day
gradually dims and fades in the memory of those left behind.

When final victory comes
we may or may not still be here
and this moment of happiness
may be our last joyous meeting.
And if I am gone tomorrow
the last verses of this poem
I'm writing now
may remain unfinished.

Those who have chosen death over capitulation
at a time when fear fills the air
like a Gestapo gas-chamber
really live their lives, in fact.
Despite their physical death
their great hopes and ambitions
will remain forever.

The memory of those who are fresh and honest
until the very end of their life
will remain forever
because as long as they lived
they lived an honest and meaningful life
and their strong feelings
will live long.

Who lives and who dies in real life
is ultimately determine by time,
and time will tell
that those
who lived for their country and the people
are the real blood of the motherland
and their pure feelings
will remain forever.

Beloved Chandragiri!
In my life
I tried to live real life
with all my efforts and convictions.
Between night and day,
the two sides of life,
I have tried to follow the day side
with all my efforts and convictions.
At every crucial moment of hardship or difficulty
I have tried to mix tears with lucidity
with all my efforts and convictions
and to embrace truth.

Even so, life is life,
mistakes might have been made.
Dear friend,
forgive my mistakes.

Like a brightening morning
after a long deep night
today's deep gloom will be split asunder.
Communism, our belief,
will certainly one day rise
from the seeds of our commitment.
Certainly one day
our happy and thriving future
will bloom like a golden flower.

Until then, in a real sense
life will not be a real life
and in a real sense
today's terrible land
will not be transformed into a beautiful place for
mankind.
Until then, we will persist
on our journey of commitment to building a
beautiful world.
Certainly one day
the civilised world of our convictions
will become real, real life.
And this twenty-first century
will be the great century of our liberation
and the third millennium
will be the great millennium
of our victory.


(Courtesy: A World To Win; issue no. 30; 2004)

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