Sahir Ludhianvi (1921-1980) "Inheritance", p.251, translated from the Hindi-Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.
“Inheritance”
(Addressing rich people’s avarice)
This country is not the descendant estate from your generation or mine.
Hundreds of generations of labor have arranged it so:
How many minds’ hard work curtailed?
So many eyes strained!
How many men of modest mien dishonored?
So many foreheads’ vermillion breaking out in the sweat of toiling widows!
All these perils were offered to the earth.
Then these views were diffused:
These young idols carved of stone
This perplexity of voices
This language of colors
The abounding twisted smoke emitted from chimneys
It is not of your creation,
It is not of my creation!
We can insist upon there being one, but there is no one process to confirm all these wonders.
Knowledge was ascended onto the cross, then apprised afterwards.
Centuries washed down poison, before insight was found agreeable.
Hundreds of feet were severed before the construction of the staircase.
Under your feet, or under my feet,
The destiny of Humanity’s days or nights is not dependent.
This nation is not the descendant estate from your generation or mine.
Hundreds of generations of labor have arranged it so:
Whatever your sorrows be,
Whatever my grief be,
Whatever the tyranny of wealthy people be,
Tomorrow’s generations are also to be accounted for!
Whenever we subvert,
Their inheritance turns into ruins.
Please do not perpetuate such tyranny,
It is not your creation alone,
So don’t ruin it!
From which a farmer is unable to get a daily sustenance,
I will never advise you to burn that field,
For only if the crop exists, then distribution can be explored!
Are you going to ask for Democracy from the ashes of crops?
Only if bridges are safe and sound, then you can go across
Or it’s grounds for opposition from the grass roots!
Otherwise, my dear comrade, my friend Ghalib has said so,
“Every wave has a snare of hundreds of crocodile palettes!”
Think and consider this before you set out
To break down proletariat infrastructure.
Is your fight with structuring a battle for destruction?
If government officials are delusive, and they were elected by proletariat support,
And bourgeoisie households, then the body politic is criminal.
Even if they were elected by my support, then I am criminal.
Train tracks, city buses, telephone lines,
Why suffer for our corruption?
Why traumatize those whose fault is none?
This country is not the descendant estate from your generation or mine.
Hundreds of generations of labor have arranged it so:
Your complaint is also worthy, as is my grievance
The need to change the milieu’s color is just.
Who says you cannot criticize the circumstances?
That you do not have to agree with the rulers’ wrongfulness
You have every right to express your views
And this right is not the alms from history
Our comrades have, by offering their blood,
Planted in this soil of oppression, a tree of equity
Which has, after a long time, bore flowers and fruits.
Asking for your own rights is paramount
However, do not ask through their assistance, these delusive cheats
About those swindlers, they will even kill the conception of your right!
Raise your hands, but do not raise them in these shufflers’ company!
About these people, who will sever your hands from your body,
They are not the interpretation of Humanity’s dream of emancipation.
They are wearying, debilitating, disheartening!
This nation is not the descendant estate from your generation or mine.
Hundreds of generations of labor have arranged it so!
Sahir Ludhianvi (1921-1980) "Inheritance", p.251, translated from the Hindi-Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.
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