Loony Saint

[On the vandalisation of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban...]

Seeing the Buddha statue plundered

The loony saint danced.

'Sever his head

Let smile on his fallen face

fly away – eyebrow, chin be blown,

Let lovely visage turn ugly, the eye turn blind

who’s it – the one bound in physical form,

break free.

Break that wall, which

Forbids us from light and air

Can it make the bedrock of some water source

Find out; (No, not for a shrine!)

The stone which stole our sky from us

Is not to be hailed as Guru.

The many bits of the statue,

Make them the path you tread on

Annihilate, humiliate

May the veiled Guru blossom at once.

- S Manjunath [Translated by Deepa Ganesh]

From Srinigannda: Contemporary Kannada Writings edited by Vivek Shanbhag