NEDUNTHEEVU NETHAMOHAN'S POEM

A POEM BY

NEDUNTHEEVU NETHAMOHAN

Translated into english by Latha Ramakrishnan(*First Draft)

THE GRAVEDIGGER

Till twelve noon he had finished digging three graves.

Sweating profusely

he sat there thoroughly spent out.

His heart was beating all too loudly.

That day alone he should dig seven graves.

That was the biggest graveyard of the city.

That which was a land of peaceful silence

has turned into the pivotal role of the greater city.

Gripped by the fear of deadly virus

the earth lay frozen as a massive rock.

In structures sky-high

birds began to build their nests.

For weeks he couldn’t go home

He had lost the calm to converse

with his mother wife and children.

Each day when he placed the coffin

inside the grave and close it

He felt terribly apprehensive

as if his very soul was being buried deep.

After each coffin descend into the grave

heaping sand upon it, covering and closing

he would unhurriedly place the flowers on the grave,

bend and kiss.

The person being buried could be anybody.

There, no ritual of opening the coffin

and look at the departed for one last time.

With moist eyes said one:

‘Maybe I had dug graves

for my relatives and friends too.

In each and every grave I leave my soul and tears

to keep them company

and close it.’