Translated by Karthik
Alms
Become a beggar
Ask for alms
Beseech,beg – Louder !
Not as far as the street corner
Your voice should cross the Infinite space
The food for your hunger
Is not in few grains of rice
You have nothing –
Except few square bricks.
There is no one , to even offer you alms
Except Yourself
It’s not me saying all this
It’s You.
Reason
The waves that come crashing towards me
I do not talk to them
I just get out of their way
Not wanting to confront.
Yet on another day
when everything remains quiet
I would hurl huge rocks at them ,as far as I can.
They would float
As my boat.
Acknowledgement: Originally published at www.madhuram.org
About the author:
Atmanaam ( 1951-1984), the pseudonym of S.K.Madhusudan, edited Zha (“ழ”), a little magazine devoted entirely to poetry and literary criticism. Zha created a platform for modern Tamil poetry and encouraged new poetic voices. Atmanaam died young and Kaakithail Oru Kodu was the only collection published during his lifetime. His complete collection, Atmanaam Kavithaigal was published posthumously in 1989.
