Haldhar Nag, "Warning" (2020)
Translated by Surendra Nath
We have our government, we no longer need,
foreign agriculture,
The soil of India has turned to rubble, all animal life is dying, O!
Quit foreign materials, despite our eyes,
blind they've made us.
Quit foreign methods, with sweet potatoes they've duped us.
Quit foreign methods.
Talking of high yield plans, the whole country they've churned.
Chemicals and pesticides have polluted water, air and soil, O!
Down with illness and diseases, death beckons at half the age;
Down with illness and diseases, one day we'l all be hollow,
Down with illness and diseases.
Fertilizers, pesticides and seeds are being sold by
foreign companies,
They are enjoying sweet jaggery [unrefined sugar cane],
all wealth they've sucked away, O!
The noose is around the farmer's neck,
all twelve months he feels the ache;
The noose is round the farmer's neck,
finally dependent he comes to beg,
The noose is around the farmer's neck.
The farmer who fed a lakh [thousands] of mouths, where can he be found?
He is struggling in debt, yet for another loan he begs, O!
Look at his sorry plight, taller the bamboo hollowewr inside;
Look at his sorry plight, the farmer is merely a brinjal dried,
Look at his sorry plight.
Discard chemicals and hybrid rice,
farm with cow-dung manure,
Jhuli, Sunakathi, Magura, Sampri, Karni Tulsibas, O!
Let there be a clean India, let the foreigners go their way;
Let there be a clean India, then shall our value stay,
Let there be a clean India.
* Jhili, Sunakathi, Magura, Sampri, Karni Tulsibas -- types of homegrown paddy