PURVA ANCHAL
--by Fehmida Riaz
How beautiful is this land!
Beautiful and long-suffering.
A shawl of buckwheat green
Flutters in the wake
Of this train speeding
Through the East.
As far as eye can see,
Green fields and granaries.
This land is a peasant woman
Coming home from the fields
With a bundle on her head.
Home?
Where angry vultures wheel
Over the rooftops and threaten to lunge,
Any minute, in any direction?
The grass is wet with dew,
Unless my tear-glazed eyes
See only tears.
Brick and stone
Reduced to rubble.
Mosque and temple still locked
In the same old squabble.
Every brow disfigured
By a frown.
A son of this land,
Laid long ago to rest,
Wakens now,
To bring you peace.
Listen to Kabir,
Who pleads with you:
Wars of hatred
Do no honour to God.
Ram and Rahim both
Will shun a loveless land.
Near a bamboo grove
Across the unruffled River Sarju,
By a lotus pond thick with blooms,
Stands a Buddha tablet
With a message from the wise.
"When two are locked in conflict and ready to lose their lives,
neither can win in the end,
unless both do - and equally.
A battle lost by either
Will be fought and refought
Until both are destroyed
And both are equal losers".
Such are the paradigms of war,
Such the insight of the Buddha.
Why are we, his heirs, so blind?
The Pandit and the Mullah
Are flattered and hung with garlands
And feasted and housed like lords,
While you, dear people of the land,
Are drowned every time
In the bloodbaths they inspire.
(Translated into English by Patricia L. Sharpe and Salman Tariq Qureshi)
PEACE
- Stephen Gill www.stephengill.ca
You are the imperishable harmony
that reaps
unparalleled prosperity.
From the chalice of your love
I long painfully to sip
the invigorating wine
of fruitful returns.
You are
the softness of the radiant might
that melts the mist,
stirs the soul of clouds pushes down the rain showers
which kiss the dry lips of earth
and the wordless sonata
that moves the sharp white beams
of the moon.
In creation
you are a balance.
You are
the luxuriance of the aroma
that runs
in the veins of the enchanted blossoms.
You flower
a fragrant feast around,
caress
the flushed cheeks of the horizon
and liberate the birds that fly
to receive the ruler retiring
in a strange ceremony.
You are
the beat that echoes
in the breast of the arc.
You muse
in the melody of the falls.
You are nirvana
that helps in breaking the fetters
of the relentless brutalities
and manna for those who hunger
for a morsel of equality
on the barren mountain
where
the biting winds of intolerance
blow.
You are
the distinctive fount
that feeds the ever-growing pangs
of the sages
in every age.
Your abode,
ocean's every drop.
You bind the earth and the sky
and rule to relieve
the rusting monotony.
SOWING SEEDS OF PEACE
- Micheal Teal, Hamilton, Ont. Canada
I am a global gardener
Sowing seeds of peace
My love of humanity
Inspires and nourishes me
We must embrace our sacredness
We must be ambassadors of light
We must respect the earth
We must savor every breath
We must invoke self awareness
We must manifest the life we desire
I am a global gardener
Sowing seeds of peace
My love of humanity
Inspires and nourishes me
I bless the heart of the world
I seek to foster greater harmony
I live life in a conscious way
I seek the path to belonging
I believe in the power of community
I honor and celebrate life
I am a global gardener
Sowing seeds of peace
My love of humanity
Inspires and nourishes me
You are heaped with blessings
You are touched by genius
You are a vessel of expression
You are aligned with a higher goal
You are a student of truth
You are gentleness and love
I am a global gardener
Sowing seeds of peace
My love of humanity
Inspires and nourishes me
To survive we must all see the peace within us all and seek to
cultivate a lifetime of joy while creating environments which serve the
betterment of humankind. To survive we must transcend the ordinary
while exploring diverse worlds and recognizing the sacredness in each
and every one of us. To survive we must listen to whisperings of our
souls while generating joy and harmony. To survive we must acknowledge
the limitless enrichment of the human spirit while embracing truth and
inspiring joy.
I am peace, I am freedom, I am Human, and I am Sacred
You are peace, You are freedom, You are human, You are sacred
We are peace, We are freedom, We are human, We are sacred
I am a global gardener
Sowing seeds of peace
My love of humanity
Inspires and nourishes me
Let us all be gardeners that this may be a world where peace blossoms
and freedom is in abundance.
RING IN THE CHRIST THAT IS TO BE
- Tennyson
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land;
Ring in the Christ to be.
AMAN KI BANSURI*
Jab aman ki bansuri
Goonje gagan ke tale
Jab dosti ka diya
Inn sarhadon pe jale
Lag jaaye koi gale
Jab saare insaanon ka
Ho ek hi kaafalaa
Bas itna yaad rahe
Ek saathi aur bhi tha
- Javed Akhtar
When the flutes of peace
Begin to echo under our skies
When the light of friendship illuminates our borders
And we embrace each other, all hatred forgotten
And belong to one land,
Do spare a thought on that momentous occasion
For the soldiers like me who never came back.
*Excerpt from the Bollywood movie “LOC Kargil” song “Ek Sathi Aur Bhi Tha,” and translated by R. M. Vijayakar and published in Indian Life and Style, January-April 2006.