From: vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.tamil
Subject: A Modern King.......
Date: 8 Sep 92 12:28:40 GMT

	M Sundaramoorthy posted his first part of (a proposed serieal on?) 
"eezhaththu ilakkiyankaL". Though the popular opinion was in not the same  
track, "naveena ilakkiya karththaakaL" (people in  modern  literature) of
Tamilnadu always endorsed that Sri Lankan Tamil writers were/are superior
to their Indian counterparts (well, don't ask me the source or reference).  
Well, their works didn't reach the target, because of number of reasons.

	Cheran from Jaffna, Sri Lanka, is a young Tamil poet.  His modern 
poems depict the "real" life problems and sufferings of "his" people. The
following poem was written when the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was
active in SriLanka.

	Though a translation would not present the real stuff, let me give
a try for the benefit of non-Tamil readers.

naveena thuppaakki arasan              modern gun king
=========================              ===============
kaalai;                                morning;
paadasaalai sellum vazhiyil            on the way to the school
siRaippaddEn                           (I was) got caught
yuththaththin naaykaLidam.             in the hands of dogs of war 

puththakangaLai veesi eRinthanar       (they) threw the books
pEnaavai muRiththanar                  broke the pen
thoorikaiyai mithiththanar             treaded the (painting) brush
en thalaiyaiyum                        shaved my
mazhiththanar.                         head too.

thuppaakkiyaik kaikaLil thanthu        gave gun in my hands
"pO! pOy vidu                          "go! go
thEsap paNi puri; pOr sey!"            serve the country; fight,"
enRanar.                               said they

paNinthEn.                             (I) obeyed.
illaiyEl                               otherwise
piNamaay,                              as a dead body (corpse?)

kaayntha kuruthiyum                    sorrounded by
eeyum                                  dried blood and flies
innum konchap pEridamaavathu           and sorrow and pity of
enchi irukkum                          at least some people left 
irakkamum parithaapamum choozhath      rolling over in the dust
theruvin OraththE                      at the edge of the road is fate
puzhuthiyil puraLvathu                 I realize
vithi ena uNarvEn.

anaiththum kodithuthaan                everything is cruel (or evil?)
ippOthu                                now
varaiyaRai seyyppadaatha               in an undefined 
oru pOr munaiyil                       war front
iru puramum kuzhal neeNda              (I am) carrying
thuppaakkich chaniyanai                a gun (which has)
EnthukiREn.                            barrels extended both sides.

============= 

From: elumpukkoodukaLin oorvalam (Copyright:  Thedal Pathippakam
      [Parade of Skeletons]                   566, Parliament St, Toronto
                                              Ontario, M5X 1P8, Canada)
=============

	For uninformed readers, let me give a brief back-ground.  Indian 
government and Research Analysis Wing (RAW) realized  that a face saving
withdrawal from Sri Lanka was inevitable. Before leaving, IPKF wanted to
form a "local" army to save/defend the Varatharajap Perumal's government
(Eezham National Democratic Liberation Front - ENDLF, an umbrella group)
of North-East.  School children were kidnapped in hundreds by IPKF/ENDLF
squads and an involuntary Tamil National Army (TNA) was formed.  Many of
those children are still (YES!!) suffering from that psychological blow.

Willing to respond to sensible follow-ups,

Vicky:
UMass, Sep 08
(doesn't necessarily mean that Vicky endorses Cheran's views)