Poem: ‘The nation is not a map drawn on a piece of paper’ (1948) | Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena

’Desh Kagaz Par Bana Naksha Nahin Hota’ (1948) by Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena

(Translation from Hindi by Ayesha Kidwai)

If one room in your house

is ablaze

Can you

just go sleep in another one?

If in one room of your house,

corpses rot and decay,

Then can you

just pray in another one?

If yes,

Then I have nothing

to say to you.

The nation is not a map

drawn on a piece of paper

so that even if an edge frays

the remaining parts stay intact;

and rivers, mountains, cities, villages

hold fast to their places

unperturbed.

If this is not your belief,

Then I do not want to live

with you.

In this world, there is nothing greater than a man’s life

Not god.

Not knowledge.

Not elections.

Any text written on a piece of paper

can be torn

And buried under

the seven folds of the earth.

A judgment

that stands bolstered by corpses

is blind.

A reign

that flows from the barrel of a gun

is the trade of assassins.

If this is not your belief,

then I no longer

have to bear with you,

even for a minute.

Remember:

The murder of a child

The death of a woman

The gaping wounds on the body

of a man rent by bullets,

are the defeat of not one regime

but the whole nation.

Such blood does not flow

to soak into the earth.

It rises to stain black

the flags that flutter in the sky.

The earth that bears the imprint of army jackboots

on which corpses fall

If that earth does not become fire

and course through your veins,

Then understand

that you have turned into a wasteland.

You have no right to even take a breath here

This world is no longer for the likes of you.

A last word

Straight up.

Do not ever forgive

a murderer.

Be he your friend

Or the stakeholder of religion

Or the renowned chowkidar

of your democracy.