Wound
Your full force was first raised against me
Let these spear-tipped streams
flow . . . my gullied eyes greening your fields
Let this crop of pain ripen,
…….. this harvest from wounds
You and I? Let's
enjoin ourselves in friendship
Always!
…….. How engaging!
At dusk where the road forks
I ran into you. Before I knew what was happening,
you raped me. Then and there, witness of this cruel intimacy,
drops of virgin blood spread on the gravel of the crossroads
like an unclaimed corpse
At each moment
every day
be it morning or night
every minute
coming & going time & again
those stains return to me
my memory of you
Violation!
From the outset
….. your every thrust
blazed as fire,
….. tore through the skin as thorns do,
pierced as a blade
….. appeared as the night of the dark moon
But these days
….. your every stroke,
a mere touch
….. and as for my self
I've become
….. the oven that contains the flame,
the bush that raises up thorns
….. the sheath that holds the blade,
fangs for the cobra's deadly poison
….. darkness of the night that swallows the moon
Like a tigress tamed in the circus,
a female snake soothed by the charmer's tune,
wound, so quickly was I transformed in you
Now you and I
….. have become nail & flesh,
miser and money.
….. footpath and footsole
Tread upon me with all your thieves & robbers
For this is certain: you'll tire, not me!
Let the variegated wishes for life germinating in me
be winnowed by your stormy gusts. Finish it! Destroy!
Wound! Maul and smother me
Lick me with your slathering flames
For I convert your force. I'm hardened to it
Where you store your weaponry of thrust and violation,
I burrow and hide, grazed from all sides by your firing guns
flameburst upon flameburst everywhere in every corner
But it is surely so, violator
….. Violation! tearing your ears, listen
Your armory will be emptied –I will not
your armory will be emptied –I will not
.
by Banira Giri
from Jeevan Thayamaru (Life: No Place)
publisher: Sanjha Prakashan, Kathmandu, 1978
translation: Wayne Amtzis and Banira Giri, 2000