Loony Saint

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[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
                                                           

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