Triveni Journal
1927 | 11,233,916 words
Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....
Shall I with my finger nails
tear your soft cheeks?
Do it it’s My bliss.
the wounds and pains will lead me on.
Shall I with my myriad hands
slam your eye gates left and right?
Try it - but what need
the fleshy eyes.
To one who looks on
the beauty and the world
with mind’s eye?
Shall I shaut your ruby lips
that they tremble?
Ah, you see,
I know it is easy
But vain talk is not valour.
If I bind your
hands with ropes strong?
Well, well – do it,
So long true freedom is a myth
Your chains but add
One more to the many.
What it I break your fingers
Stifling your high Song
even before birth?
No, you can’t - my nerves
will rise and write,
If not in ink, in red blood.
If by chance they are Strangled,
and red drops gushed out
I will bend my self slowly down
and - Oh Time!
On your broad forehead I will smear it a Tilak.*
The radiant red Tilak
may perhaps leave you
folding your hands in worship.
To accept or refuse
is a choice yours If I lose my confidence.
“An ornamental smearing of rep powder made as a round dot on the forehead of Hindu women which is often associated with the divine in the human.
(Translated from Tamil By “Bala.”)
A nation cannot progress if it merely imitates its ancestors; what builds a nation is Creative inventive and vital activity
Speech, Sangor, 30
October 1952