#latha

Translator: Shash Trevett (Tamil)

First I made the pottu

Then I planted

Tumeric and pale-scented

Jasmine on the vine

Raw-green tumeric-yellow sky-blue violet-

Inked butterflies fluttered

And fluttered

Everywhere in the house

Filling it with their music

Every moment 

Around you

As I grew around you

You said

Not all lives 

Are conceived 

To walk the earth

Yes

You will never become

A god

as we think it to be.

We will die many times

as long as we are alive.

Until the end, it will remain a stranger.

The loss will not be forgotten.

It will wrap itself around our throat

like a constricting python

We will be unable to unload it

even when we visit the toilet.

Like a ghoul set free,

uncertain where to go.

The list will roll out

endlessly,

beginning with

mother, father, friend, kin

and rolling on with

the people living in the same street,

the people living in the same village,

the people speaking the same language.

If anyone tells you

that Time heals,

don't trust them.

One can live without crying

One can live without thinking

One can train oneself to go sleepless.

The only thing

one cannot stop

is the dead

coming alive in your dreams.

Bho èirigh gu laighe na grèine [From dawn ‘til dusk]

Beul an latha [Daybreak]

Èirigh na grèine [Sunrise]

Madainn [Morning]

Meadhan-latha [Noon / midday]

Latha [Day]

Feasgar [Afternoon]

Oidhche [Night]

Dol fodha na grèine [Sunset]

Beul na h-oidhche [Nightfall / Dusk]

landas ay babaguhin.

Hindi ako ang siyang hiling,