jayaprabha's poem on suicides of cotton farmers in 1988
Rao Veluri (rveluri@smtpgate.anl.gov)
Fri, 14 Jun 96 17:29:14 CST
Friends:
A couple of days ago I have posted pApinEni SivaSaMkar's poem, 'naagali
viriginappuDu,' from the collection, kavitaa O kavitaa. The poem, reflects,
if not anything, a poet's honest reaction to a ghastly occurrence,viz; the
1988 suicides of fourteen cotton farmers. Here is a poem, again a poet's
reaction on the same incident by the foremost feminist poet, jayaprabha.
This poem, 'kanneeLLu tappa vErE saakshyaalu lEvu' is taken from 'vaamanuDi
mooDopaadaM,' a collection of 36 poems by jayaprabha, published in 1988.
Should the poet react to such disturbing incidents and write? Or, should
the poet stay in his/her cocoon and use the noble art of crafty
versification, on 'prEyasi kannula varNana,' or on extolling the
philosophy of fatalism, or some such thing in some off-beat meter? I hope
these are not forbidden subjects to discuss on telusa.
It is a little long poem; bear it with sympathy and read!
kanneeLLu tappa vErE saakshyaalu lEvu
by
jayaprabha
kanna pillalu
kaMcaala muMdu koocunna vELa
paadaipOyina patti paMTa
neekaLLa muMdu
peeDa kalalaa bhaya-peDutuMdi
Saaya Saktulaa prayatniMci
paLLa biguvuna
batukuni neTTukostooMTE
vrudhaagaa nee tyaagaanni
aakupurugu korikEstoonE vuMtuMdi.
aiskreeM tinnaTTu
guTTalu guTTalugaa goMgaLee purugulu
nee praaNaanni cappariMca bOtaayi.
kaltee maMdulatO
nee kaMTlO kaaraM koTTina
doMgalaMtaa
saMghaMlO pedda manushulugaa
tirugutoonE vuMTaaru
samasyani yedurkOvaalani
civaridaakaa prayatnistaavu
ninnu kannavaaLLa kOsaM
batukuni kaaboolee vaadiki
taakaTTu peDataavu.
ainaa
idi doMgavedhavala vyavastha ani
teliyaka
kuLLu raajakeeyaala madhya
baMdipOTla kummulaaTala madhya
cikkupaDina lEgadooDalaa
nee jeevitaanni uri taaDuki bigiMcu kuMTaavu
"patti paMTa pOyi
padhnaalugu maMdi raitulu aatma hatya" aMtoo
patrikalu gaggOlu peDitE
nee praaNaM pOyEdaakaa coosi
pannu raayiteelu prakatistuMdi prabhutvaM.
nee paMTani naaSanaM cEsina
nee praNaanni teesina
puruguliMkaa polaallonE saMcaristunnayi
kaltee purugu maMdulammina
doMgalaMtaa bahiraMgaM gaanE unnaaru
ennikallO nee voTlu aDukkunna naayakulaMtaa
paartee phiraayiMpullO talamunaka lavutunnaaru
pratyardhi raajakeeyaala pai
kattulu noorutunnaaru
needi hatya aMtoo niroopiMca Daaniki
maaku koDigaTTu tunna
aMtaraatmalu kooDaa lEvu
raitannaa!
ikkaDa ninnu caMpina vaaLLani
paTTukunE caTTaalu lEvu
sikshiMcE kOrtulu lEvu
khaaLee kaMcaalamuMdu koorcunna
nee pasi koonala kenneeLLu tappa
vErE saakshyaaloo lEvu!
Regards.
--- Venkateswara Rao Veluri