Requiem to Mother Eanh

Mother F.arth
still alive,
in the imminence of your death,
may your soul rest in peace:
this song I inscribe in my heart today
is a requiem lO you (and to me).

When tomorrow you lie benumbed

in the shadow of the envelopina,
dark, poiaon-8ower of death,
none will be left betc,
me either,
to moum, to wet your dead lips
with our tean:
there(ore, I inscribe this to you:
here is a wish, Mother Earth,
Jan,-Ftb. 1991
 O.N.Y. Kurup { 17

not yet dead.

in the imminence of your death
may your soul rest in peace!

You bore oountkss children

who cannot live in amity:
you saw them, with your own eyes.
eating one another.
You stood helpless. unseen,
shedding silent tean!
Theo, as they danced merrily,
eating you up slice by slice,
uoprotcatiog, all-suffering,
you atoodr

Partina your soft, green mantle,

you breast-fed them;
u they 1wclled they developed
a strange thint (their last!)
a thirst (or the blood
of your taCtCd heard

Moth.er mioe, favourite bride or the sun,

you lost your sun-given bridal d~
They tore it to ahrcda,
they clawed at your bare body,
they aucked the aushing blood!
The terrific sound
of the beat of death
is beard
aa they awirl in their
frenzied danc:e!

The story or the Greek youth

who married hia mother ia old.
They, the childm1 of Mother Earth,
No. 141
18 / Jncfian Utuature

they, who strip her naked,

are writing a new v~ion
of the old story.
What they strip they sell
in the market for a drink.
The game of the sinner's claw,
the thud-thud of the fall.
of the sharp edge of his hatchet,
goes on and on!

The eyes of the blazing sun

shoot rays of fiery fury!
June clouds hunt for drinking water!
December nights hunt for cold!
April dawns bunt for a little ffowcrt
Mountain rivers bunt for swirling currents!
The rhythm of creation is broken,
the wheels of the chariot of life
are stuck in their course.
All I have, mother mine,
are your sweet memories!

Mother!
You came as the first awakening
with your herb and honey
on my tongue.
You drip the last drop of water
as my flame goes off.
I have for ever
marvelled at your magic
of oatcbiog a baby sun
in a dew drop!
My fancy has grazed
in the shades of your trees!
Like what the prophets of yore did
windstorms trod upon your se~!

Jo1t.-Feb, 1991
 O.N.V. Kurup I /9

Motherl
I see you in myriad forms.
I see
how you deck the trees with verdant hues,
how you scare me with the screeching of the owl,
bow you comfort me with the cuckoo's song,
how you dip the dusks in gold,
how you carry the even time
and disappear into the woods,
bow you return with the dawn
on your shoulders_
bow you feed me with the nectar
of poetry,
bow you carry me ever so gently
like the lotus leaf does a drop of water.
I know all this, mother mine,
wbatdimmortalinme
are your memories!

As an outcast with bowed, shaven head

u you trudge along the solar highway
carrying the bundle of your shamcl
weighed down with the sin
of bavina borne children
who turned motber-raviahen,
with your mind consumed
by the fire of anguish,
doesn't cruel death
creep in through your veins?

Mother Earth, not yet dead,

this is your requiem!
This song which l inscribe in my heart today
is a requiem to you (and lo me)!
I won•t be here to wet your dead lips,
to mourn your d~tb,

No. 141
20 I 1""1an Lilff'tllllll

'Ihcrefo~,
1 inacnl>e just trus here:
Mother Earth,
not yet dead, in the immine,,¢ of your death,
may your soul IeSt in peace!
May your soul rest in peace!
Tra,ulat~tlfrom Malayalam l,y S. Y e ~

JLN, Purichll