On the 40th year since 1984 's catastrophic violence against the Sikh people: a poem for my people, inspired by so many people. Dignity to the victims and survivors of the genocidal violence and the victim and survivors of the violence turned inwards...in relationships, marriages, homes, childhoods. Wars have their endings inside families (as Cynthia Enloe notes in her writing on conflicts around the world) --may we write our own new endings, we the children of 1984, raising the grandchildren of 1984. This is a postscript to Harinder Singh Mehboob Saab's beautiful heroic poetry and call to claim our divine dignity.
ਬੇਪੱਤ ਹੋਇਆਂ ਕੌਮਾਂ ਦੇ ਘਰ,
Baypatt ho-i-aa(n) kaumaa(n) day ghar
ਦੂਰ ਫਰੇਬੀ ਧਰ ‘ਤੇ|
Door pharaybee dhar ‘tay
ਬਦਨਸੀਬ ਪੈਰਾਂ ਦੇ ਹੇਠਾਂ,
Badanaseeb pairaa(n) day hayṭ'haa(n)
ਖ਼ਾਕ ਵਿਸ਼ੈਲੀ ਗਰਕੇ|
Ḵhaak vishailee garakay
ਮੂੰਹ-ਜ਼ੋਰ ਸਮਾਂ ਨਾ ਕੌਮੇ !
Moo(n)ha-zor samaa(n) naa kaumay
ਮੇਟ ਸਕੇਗਾ ਤੈਨੂੰ ;
Mayṭ sakaygaa tainoo(n)
ਆਪਣੀ ਪੱਤ ਪਛਾਣ ਲਵੇਂ ਜੇ,
Aapaṇee patt pachhaaṇ lavay(n) jay
ਲੜ ਮਾਹੀ ਦਾ ਫੜ ਕੇ |
Laṛ maahee daa phaṛ kay
-- Harinder Singh Mehboob.
Returned his national poetry award to the Indian Government in protest against the 1984 assault on Sikhs.
O violated community
Left on the far horizon by treachery
under your fated feet
poisonous ash is a flurry
Staggering challenges,
Can’t erase you
If clutching the Beloved
you recognize your dignity
--Mallika Kaur (+sangat), unsatisfied translators
PostScript, 2024:
Dignity to the dead. Still unaccounted for
Dignity to ten thousand pairs of shoes unclaimed outside Darbar Sahib,
Lending dignity to tens of thousands made untraceable in ten years after
Dignity to (38, 42, 75) unknown, gurdwaras under 1984’s Indian Army siege
Dignity to those who survived
Dignity to those who chose silence for survival
Dignity to those whose existence became resistance
Dignity to the returned awards, lost jobs, usurped lands, charred libraries,
uprooted nishaan sahibs, mutilated family trees
Dignity to those pulled out from schools, homes, farms, everything familiar
Dignity to those pushed in to depression
Dignity to those left to numb it without treatment, with guilt
Dignity to those married off too soon, in desperate bids for safety
Dignity to those marriages that crumbled unsafely
Dignity to those tortured in cells tasked with making death seem sweeter
Dignity to those subjected to violence turned inwards
Dignity to the children whose parents died
Dignity to the childhoods that died
Dignity to the parents who lived for their parents who did not
Dignity to those who could never again experience joy without guilt
Dignity to those who fight cancerous oppressions that eat us within
Dignity to those who lost art and heart song
Dignity to those who refuse to cease dreaming
Dignity to those who oscillate in between
Dignity to the keepers of memory that keeps them alive as it kills them
Dignity to the grandchildren of 1984 who must dream their own 2084
Dignity when we say more, because we are more than the victims of 1984.
Dignity when we say less, because we are more than the victims of 1984.
Un-erased.
--mallika kaur. 2024.