O Syria!

-         Manprasad Subba

Many nights have passed

Since Syria has not been able to sleep a wink in my eyes

Many days have passed

Since Syria, fallen unconscious,

Has not been able to wake up in my eyes

O friend! Do not ask about the map of Syria

Battered and bleeding face of any child

Is what they call Syria

The earth bleeds

And the blood flows upon blood

Even the Mediterranean Sea cannot wash them away.

There you can see the map of Syria.

Having lost the leg of a tottering baby,

The highway has lost its journey.

Having lost an arm of a baby,

The breeze has lost its sense of touch.

The smiling eyes of the sun

Hit by the splinter of bomb

Are suddenly swollen shut

And dreams have fled

The sky is swallowed by the billowing arsenic smoke

And all the beauties have vanished

Syria is screaming  

From beneath the earth

Buried under the debris of crumbled time

O Seat of power! O Superpower!

How many thousands of ears do you need

To hear this scream?

Which latest model of binocular do you need

To see this face of Syria?

O Seat of power that breathes chemical breath,

How many millions of lungs do you want?

O Superpower that laughs hatching on the bombs,

How many millions

Of baby futures do you want?

O Picasso!

I see you writhing in your tomb

To paint another Guernica,

The twenty-first century Guernica on the canvas of Syria!

Syria is the name of my mother,

My elder sister, my younger sister and my daughter

Syria is the name of my father,

My elder brother, my younger brother and my son

It’s also my own name!

But at this moment, O Syria!

I can do nothing

But to sit in a distant corner

And shed these words from my eyes      

O Commanders of creeds!

Dip your tongues in the ponds of innocent bloods

And let your tongues know the taste of innocence

Those tongues would speak of paradise

But this piece of earth has turned into hell

Where the innocent souls have been dumped

O God!

Why are you so eerily mute?

We are waiting for your voice from heaven…

But how long will it be before you speak?