Words like lightning

Words like lightning

Sukanto Bhattacharya

[This poem was composed by Sukanto and recited by Gautam Chattopadhyay on 24 July 1946. Sukanto’s nephew was then two years old and had no inkling that he (the nephew) would one day become CM of an as yet unborn province named West Bengal. The angla version was eventually printed after Sukanto’s death from the memory of Chattopadhyay, but with marginal editing by Subhas Mukhopadhyay, who felt that the flow was not smooth in a couple of places, possibly because Chattopadhyay’s memory had played him false. The poem, about the release of political prisoners belonging to revolutionary terrorist currents, seems appropriate today, and makes one wonder about the real aims of the “cut doewn sukanto” campaign.]

After what ages what passage of years

Words like lightning come forth from peoples’ lips

Clouds rush back and forth in the sky

Thunder speaks into one’s ears on all sides.

Suddenly, peace has fled the realm of sleep

Day and night alike become unsettled

Work, only work.

The angry claws of the people lion

Has become sharp, has become acute

Its roar proclaims – revenge, revenge.

Thousands of martyrs and heroes

Intimate in dreams, deep n our memory

We have not forgotten their selflessness.

Indistinct promises tremble on our lip

In our ears only sound incessant the jingle of chains

The question is not whether we can or not

The oath today is not to smash the oppressors’ prison doors

For so long have we only heard the jingle of chains

They were heores

They raised storms oin the sky

Their stories, replete with killing foreigners

Bullets, guns and the flame of bombs

Even now thrill us.

In repose, in the gaps of duty,

They eternally call us

When shall we bring them back?

Whenm will our powerful arms

And the irresistible pressure of millions

Break the fetters?

When will the cacophony of our lives

The flood tide of million headed masses

Wash away the prisons?

Wen will they cross the ocean of sorrow?

They are creditors

We have recognised them now

They gave us life’s blood

And in return with both hands

Took the chains of jail

And in secret put us in debt

They are creditors

We have recognised them now

O debtor unmindful

With blood must you redeem the debts.

Listen, the people of the world

Harken, o brothers of our land.

Let blood be exchanged

We want them today.