Untouchable!
Yes; I’m like electricity
not accessible to your
cold touch
Untouchable!
Yes; I’m like the depth of the ocean
not accessible to the touch
of your searing eyes
Untouchable!
Yes; I’m the breast-sprouted land,
a Sambhogini1
full of life, who loves skin;
forests and valleys, rivers and mountains take birth in me
Untouchable!
Yes; I don’t care for
you faggots who indulge
in your solipsistic schemes;
rather I care for
the monkey which jumps from tree to tree
with its young one clinging to its sides
Untouchable!
Yes; I do not fear
the radiance of your eyes
which without tears and tomorrows
have become a furnace for
money and nuclear weapons;
rather I fear
the dog which eats
your shit and guards your house
Fake eyes don’t see dreams
Untouchable!
Yes; I eat cow
and have become one
dancing in valleys, mountains, plains;
firmly planting my foot on land
I lift my tail to hit the rainbow,
I gore the rainy clouds and
fling them over graveyards
Untouchable!
Yes; I eat cow
and have become one.
I with an udder in every strand of my body hair
roam around feeding milk to babies found in garbage dumps
Untouchable!
Yes; I became cow by eating it
But I will not eat your fodder
to become human like you;
I can’t eat humans.
Translated from Kannada by Ankur Betageri
(With some modifications by the editorial team)
‘Govu Tindu Govinantaadavanu’. From N.K. Hanumantiah’s collection of poems ‘Chitrada Bennu’ (2006) Kannada Sangha; St Joseph’s College of Commerce.
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