From: hlpi@cyclone.mitre.org (HLPI)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka,soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Cheran wrote when IPKF is there - Now can't because ANIMALS are there
Date: 11 Sep 92 14:32:51 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Originator: hlpi@cyclone


In article <18393.2aac9c78@ecs.umass.edu>, vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu writes:
> 
> 	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.

     Cheran could write when IPKF was Jaffna. Unfortunately, Cheran
could/would not do so now, as LTTE is in command. We can only guess
what some poet in Jaffna would write:

(Note:
      First column is from vicky's mail, the Last column appended
      by the author in honor of Cher and Selvi)

>  modern gun king                        modern gun tiger
> =========================              ===============
morning;                                 night; was cudling with my grandfather 
on the way to the school                 my older brother just turned 11
(I was) got caught                       when they came - oh! why they came
in the hands of dogs of war              what did he do 

(they) threw the books                   they threw his books, 
broke the pen                            scolded my mother
treaded the (painting) brush             said something about sacrifice
shaved my                                oh! sacrifice a goat not my brother
head too.                                
> 
gave gun in my hands                     put a capsule around his neck
go! go                                   hit him in the butt 
serve the country; fight,"               when he held on to my mother
said they              

(I) obeyed.                              He obeyed and we did too
otherwise                                otherwise
as a dead body (corpse?                  a dead body would be my mother
sorrounded by                            surrounded by
dried blood and flies                    fresh warm blood
nd sorrow and pity of                    much warmer than that
at least some people left                running in any of their bodies
rolling over in the dust                 leave my brother
at the edge of the road is fate          take me instead
I realize                                I realized

everything is cruel (or evil?)           everything is cruel
now                                      now
in an undefined                          for an undefined goal
war front                                How do you liberate tamils 
(I am) carrying                          when you kill tamils
a gun (which has)                        He is carrying a gun
barrels extended both sides.             barrels extended all sides
					 to protect me and my mother
					 from becoming corpses
                                         He is carrying a capsule
                                         to protect the guys
					 who threatned my mother
					 who send him to death

					 Oh my dear brother
					 may god protect you!!

From: elumpukkoodukaLin oorvalam         From: heart
[Parade of Skeletons]                     
(Copyright:  Thedal Pathippakam          (Copyright: no one to copyright
566, Parliament St, Toronto                          use it copy it I dont care)
Ontario, M5X 1P8, Canada)