FOR PUBLICATION
AHRC-ART-007-2008
May 23, 2008

An Article Series on Human Rights and Culture by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

Human Rights and Culture - Issue 7

This is the 7th issue of Human Rights and Culture. This issue contains the poems, Deity of a Ruined Temple! By Rabindranaht Tagore; A tyre like a neck tie by Basil Fernando; A little of me, by Aditya Shanka; How Would it Feel, by Lydia Brackett and Tearful Poems of a Mother, a children’s poem by W. M. Gayathri Priyakari Gunasekara.

You may view the previous issues at:  http://newsletters.ahrchk.net/hrc/

Your contributions and comments for future issues can be sent to ahrc@ahrc.asia.

Notice of Award to Prof. Sankara Pillai

We are pleased to inform you that Prof. K.G. Sankara Pillai, a regular contributor to this publication has been awarded the Mahakavi P. (P. Kunhi Raman) Memorial Trust Award for Poetry. The collection of poems by Prof. K. G. Sankara Pillai titled “K.G.S. Poetries?was selected for the award by the Trust. The judging committee included the Trust Secretary Mr. V. Raveendran Nair, Dr. Ambikasudan Mangadu, Mr. K. M. Ahmed. The award will be presented to Prof. K. G. Sankara Pillai at Thrissur Literary Academy Hall on May 27 by Dr. Sukumar Azhikode. Cultural affairs Minister Mr. M. A. Baby will inaugurate the function.

Educated in Kerala, K. G. Sankara Pillai joined the collegiate educational service of his home state as a lecturer in Malayalam in 1971. He worked in various colleges until his retirement in 2002 as Principal of Government Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. He has been editor of important literary journals: Prasakthi (a journal of radical political views, the third issue of which was confiscated by the police in 1974) and Samakaleena Kavita (1991-1996) devoted to poetry. He has also edited Penvazhikal, an important anthology of women’s poetry and feminist criticism in Malayalam. An accomplished translator, he has published Malayalam translations of poetry from Africa, Bengal and the south Indian state of Karnataka.

Prof. Sankara Pillai is the recipient of the state and central Sahitya Akademi Awards in 1998 and 2002 respectively, he has authored three volumes of poetry in Malayalam.

The AHRC congratulates Prof. Sankara Pillai on his achievement.

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Deity of the Ruined Temple!

Rabindranath Tagore

Deity of the ruined temple! The broken strings of Vina sing no mote your praise. The bells in the evening proclaim not your rime of worship. The air is still, and silent about you.

In your desolate dwelling comes the vagrant spring breeze. It brings the tidings of flowers—the flowers that for your worship are offered no more.

Your worshipper of old wanders ever longing for favour still refused. In the eventide, when fires and shadows mingle with the gloom of dust, he wearily comes back to the ruined temple with hunger in his heart.

Many a festival day comes to you in silence, deity of the ruined temple. Many a night of worship goes away kith lamp unlit.

Many new images are built by masters of cunning and carried to the holy stream of oblivion when their time is come.
Only the deity of the ruined temple remains unworshipped in deathless neglect.

Rabindrantha Tagore ?1861-1941 was the only Indian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. A poet, playwright and philosopher, he was known as the Sun of India. Deity of the ruined temple comes from his famous his collection, Gitanjali and may be found in his book, Collected Poems and Plays, which was first published in 1936.

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A tyre like a neck tie

Basil Fernando

A murderer
Is forever a murderer
Tyres on which
You burned his body
Are now on your neck
Like a tie
Fire that burned him
Burns you inside
As you creep to your woman
Seeking love
Stars stand as a witness
Against you every night.

Basil Fernando is a Sri Lankan poet and has published several collections of poems. An anthology of his poems entitled, Sundramaithry, has been translated into Malayalam by Dr. Dhanya Menon, and published in 2008. This is the first anthology of Sri Lankan poetry translated into any India language. His writings may be seen at www.basilfernando.net under literature. This poem was first published in Channels Vol. 12 No. 1 ?The English Writers Cooperative of Sri Lanka, October 2004.

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A little of me

Aditya Shanka

A little of me exceeds all calculation

Without my knowledge,
it replaces my strong response with silence,
brave ideas with frustration,
innocent smiles with greedy knives

It makes my walk towards vastness end up in hideouts, 
things to be remembered with a vengeance always forgotten,
words of hope to be always read as abuse

Though I want to gift my seat in an overcrowded bus to the old lady,
I don’t

I am unable to refuse dreams, though I want to be more than a spectator
my stubborn resistance gets projected as meek acceptance

A little of me exceeds all calculation
It claps with discipline,
cheers opinion and opinion less

Today,
I prefer the voice of the enslaved

Aditya Shanka is a young poet from Kerala. His book After Seeing consists of a number of poems which are reflections on films.

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How Would It Feel

Lydia Brackett

How would it feel
To walk down the streets of your country and not be known
How would it feel
To be enslaved by your own husband
To be beaten
To be raped
To be tortured to death
With meaningless cries for help.
How would it feel
To be imprisoned from the outside
Forbidden to work
To have an education
Feeling life is not worth living for.
How would it feel
To feel unworthy of your own name.

Lydia Brackett is a RAWA supporter from the USA. She was moved to write this poem after trying on the burqa. RAWA is the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Further information on their advocacy and work may be found at their website: http://www.rawa.org/index.php

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Tearful Poems of a Mother

(A Children’s Poem )
W. M. Gayathri Priyakari Gunasekara

The day you were conceived in my womb as my first
A thousand flowers bloomed in my mind, my son
The first day your milk-mixed eyes saw the world
In my mind the Poson full moon appeared
When with childish smiles you were walking in front of the house
And in my warmth you cuddled and dived into the dream world,
There was no one so fortunate as myself on the earth
Hundreds and thousands of times my mind murmured in joy
My son grew in intelligence and good habits
Who did not see my golden son’s value?
Though not rough and hard, you, my son, appeared a hero
Who then didn’t see my son’s value?
As the Asela moon was rising, murderers entered my home 
Despite thousands of pleas to the heart, away they took my son
Hearing the fire of the gun’s barrel, my mind went far away
To which world was my golden son taken away?

W. M. Gayathri Priyakari Gunasekara is a Grade 12 student in Sri Lanka. ‘Tearful Poems of a Mother?is one of the poems from a collection of 83 Sinhalese poems by children of grade 3 ?12 from the anthology Kadulu Mathakayen Obbata (Beyond the memory of tears) published by a organisation called Kalapeya Api (We of the free trade zone) based in Negombo, Sri Lanka. This poem has been published in several publications in different countries. Translation by Basil Fernando

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The Asian Human Rights Commission is regularly issuing this article series on Human Rights and Culture in which various cultural expressions, poems, stories, pictures and other forms of cultural expression that are based on the theme of justice, will be published. A pivotal issue in modern literature is justice, particularly the enormous unleashing of injustice under fascist, communist and other authoritarian regime including those that pursue an unbridled market economy have generated responses from created writers. This search for justice is at the very essence of being human. Human beings are part of nature and part of each other. Perhaps the lines of John Donne are most relevant: ?any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde;?lt;/STRONG>