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Mainstream, VOL XLIX, No 20, May 7, 2011

The Nemesis

Saturday 14 May 2011

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RABINDRANATH TAGORE

Your breathern you have treated with disrespect,

You have denied them their simple human rights.

You have made them stand and wait before you,

And not given them a place in your affection.

You must share with them all, their ignominy.

II

You have made of your neighbour an untouchable,

You have offended that of God in every man.

If famine visits your land like the wrath of God,

You shall have to break your crumbs with the poorest.

You must share with them all, their ignominy.

III

From your high seat you have cast them down,

With them was overthrown all your power.

There it grovels in the dust of the depressed,

If you must save yourself, descend to their depth.

You must share with them all, their ignominy.

IV

Those you trample underfoot, drag you down,

Further backward they recede, the less you advance.

Shut off the light of knowledge from them

And a blind wall separates you from your well-being.

You must share with them all, their ignominy.

V

Long has your nation’s shame weighed you down,

But you refuse still to worship the God in men

Bend your head of pride for a while

and behold Him in the dust where the lowliest lie.

You must share with them all, their ignominy.

VI

Do you not see the courier of death at your door,

ready to brand his stigma on the highest brow?

If in arrogance you shun your fellow-men and

remain withdrawn in your selfish vaunt,

then, in the ashes of vast cremation pyre,

You shall share with them all, their ignominy.

[Translated by Kshitis Roy from the original Bengali poem Hey Mor Durbhaga Desh; it appeared in Mainstream Annual 1965]

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