Jacinta Kerketta, "Jamuni, Stop Yourself from Being Sold" (translated poem; 2019)
Oh Jamuni, Look
Every day now,
Your pain
Is being adorned in the market of news.
From the country to foreign lands,
See how your pain is being sold.
Beaten by your husband,
Raped by a neighbor,
Forced to abort an unwanted pregnancy by a lover,
Murdered—soon to be—
Exploited and oppressed—
Every kind of spicy, sensational tale
Is being made out of your suffering.
On radio, TV, the internet,
In daily news,
You see, read, and hear it—
Sitting silently at home, staring—
Thinking that amid all this,
You yourself have become secondary.
Digging the ground, you think—
Are you pain, are you a headline,
Or are you a human being?
Jamuni, who are you, after all?
Oh Jamuni, look—
What a crowd has gathered
Outside your home.
They want to write about you—
Stories, poems, and books.
With pens in hand,
They wander at your door,
Asking you
Hundreds of questions at once.
You are afraid,
Your words are caught in your throat.
Some call themselves well-wishers,
Slowly, quietly, they come close,
Explaining to you
The rules and ways of the world.
After gaining your trust,
As soon as you cry with emotion,
They, with a cunning smile of success,
Begin to gently stroke your arms.
You flinch, you grow afraid.
You must learn to understand not just the touch,
But the intention behind it—
Because beyond every boundary
Lies the camp of those with wicked minds.
You wander in your own city,
Among your own caste, your own people—
And you’ll find such intentions
Everywhere—
In every camp,
They have made their home.
Oh Jamuni, rise.
Recognize their intentions—
Behind those black-and-white hairs,
Beneath those blue and brown eyes,
After those long-winded lectures—
Remember just this:
You must walk miles without rest,
Through unknown, wild, deserted forests—
Leaving footprints with your bare feet,
Carving out new paths for yourself.
Even amid the chaos outside,
Listen, Jamuni—
To the call of your inner voice:
With the heat of your own pain,
Forge a strong weapon—
One that will carry the flag of success
And prepare you
To reach the very summit.
Translated from HIndi with the assistance of ChatGPT
First published in the Kavi Man Jani Man anthology