ra-sh
Indian
Ra Sh translates from Malayalam and Tamil to English and vice versa. Translated works by Dario Fo, Paulo Friere, etc. English translations include Harum Scarum Saar and Other Stories by Bama (from Tamil), Mother Forest- The unfinished story of C.K.Janu by Bhaskaran (from Malayalam) ( published by Women Unlimited, Delhi) and Waking is Another Dream, an anthology of Sri Lankan Tamil poetry (along with Meena Kandasamy) ( by Navayana, Delhi.) / Translated plays and poems from Tamil for an Anthology of Dalit Writing in Tamil and articles from Malayalam for an Anthology of Dalit writing in Malayalam ( both published by Oxford University Press, India). Also, translated stories for an Anthology of New Dalit Writing from South India, under the title ‘No Alphabet in Sight’, published by Penguin India. / Poems have been published in Bhashaposhini, Kindle Magazine, and Gulmohurmagazine.
By Kuzhur Wilson ( in Malayalam)
(trans from Malayalam by Ra Sh)
Varghese has no home.
Holes up where he works.
Jesus’s own man.
Big rosary around his neck.
And a matching wooden cross.
He gardens around the yard
On days of leisure.
Holds a deep grudge
Against the trees around.
Doomed are they the moment
His eyes settle on them.
Asked him once whether
His rancor was because
Jesus was nailed on wood.
Or, was it the wheezing
the Acacia trees caused?
Or, was it the itchy worms
from the soft wood trees?
He said time and again
‘Brother, I love the trees
More than you love them.’
Have seen many times
The birds from the trees
Chopped down by Varghese
Looking for their nests.
Clearing the bushes along
The road to the office was
Varghese’s job for the day.
When I went out for a smoke
Glowing was he about
the way the place now gleamed.
Midnight, after work,
Was driving along the path
Shorn clean by Varghese.
In the blaze of the headlight
A hare dashed frantically
Looking for its bush.
Oct 7, 2013
Oct 7, 2013 at 2:52 AM UTC
Dog Day I
By Ra Sh
Dogs make great lovers.
They are tail waggers and flag wavers
who never forget you. They always start
from where they finished last
restoring the session.
Memories of love are imprinted on them
like in flash sticks.
They never fail you and are tireless
and have yelping tongues that flare up
to kiss your face unlike damp humans.
Dogs don't ****
A dog doesn't ride you unless you offer yourself to him.
Most important,
they hold you in a vice like two-hoots-for-the-world grip.
When loving, they call out in ecstasy
such endearing terms like oh my queen and oh my *****
Calling you even a **** sending you crashing over the precipice.
And, in love throes, they send a knot deep into you,
fulfilling you.
And, if you send a knot deep into them,
you are hooked for life,
never to disentangle
even when gods pelt stones.
Oct 7, 2013
Oct 7, 2013 at 2:37 AM UTC