The Graveyard (An Elegy)
“Padmabhushan” GURRAM JOSHUA
Years have rolled on but not a soul
That slept in this cemetery rise up, alas!
How long is this sleep absorbed in stillness?
How many a mother have bitterly wept!
Stones have melted in this place with tears.
Gloomy clouds have swallowed the sky,
Owls with devils have begun to sport,
Ravens do scream, my heart does shudder,
But not a leaf in this graveyard moves;
How pleasantly peace in this place pervades!
Is this the place where the mellifluous pen
Of some renowned poet has perished in embers?
Is this the place where the royal scepter
Of some mighty king has been burnt in fire?
Is this the place where the chain of black beads
Of some newly-wed woman has been ruined in cinders?
Is this the place where the skilful brush
Of some famous painter has been destroyed in flames?
This is verily the stage on which,
With his host of devils, the Destroyer dances;
This is the throne of ashes from which
Death fiercely reigns the earth.
On this new grave plunged in darkness dense,
The lamp that flickers like a hovering glowworm.
Though oil exhausted, refuses to be put out;
Shall we call it a lamp? It must be the heart
Of some bereaved mother, that lingers there.
My heart would break at those little tombs
In which some pretty cheeks have perished,
In which some beloved is laid to rest,
Some mother’s heart has its agony unquenched,
Arts yet to flourish have been nipped in the bud!
The corpse that is flung by the marble tomb
Of a very rich man, and rolls in dust,
Must be of some wretch who has cried and died
Of hunger, and no one mourns for him,
Nor the cemetery has mercy to cover his corpse.
Distinctions of caste have no place here!
Death does level distinctions on earth:
Equality and justice that prevail in this place,
Lull the ferocious tiger and the goat
To commune together and lie in peace.
–Rendered from
Telugu by B. Theodore