हम कितना ही हल और हिरन लिखते रहें
वे ह से हत्या लिखते रहते हैं हर समय ।
'''लीजिए अब यही कविता अँग्रेज़ी में पढ़िए'''
Mangalesh Dabral
The Alphabet
I want to write the letter A in a language
A for Apple A for Apricot
but I start writing A for adversity A for Atrocity
I try writing B for bat or B for benevolence
but I end up writing B for brutality B for betrayal
Up until now I’ve been writing C for cat
but now C has the sound of a catastrophe in wait
I used to think D must be for daisies
lots and lots of daisies
outside houses inside houses and inside humans
but I saw that all the flowers were being carried away
to become garlands that would adorn the wicked
Someone grabs my hand and says
Write F for fear which is present everywhere
I stands for injury and L for lapse
despots snatch away our complete alphabet
they turn language into violence
society’s violence
M has been reserved for Murder
no matter how much we write Mop and Moose
they keep writing M for Murder all the time
'''— translated from the Hindi by Sarabjeet Garcha'''
</poem>