News of war makes me wonder if we've really learned anything as a race from our history checkered with destruction. Listened to a Hindi song on war sometime back and I thought I'll translate it for here for friends who come from either side of this war:
Oh my enemy, my brother, yes my very own,
these burning abodes whisper something to you and me,
this destruction and death says something to you and me.
War is but a matter of few days, Life cries for ages to come.
A dark and deafening silence
spreads over villages burnt with impunity,
broken bridges lay over roaring rivers,
on a earth tired, wounded, of anxiety.
Fields are scorched with a poignant gloom,
walkways are dreaded and feared,
the cosmos grieves its loss,
staring from the stars at these burning homes and smoky air.
Oh my enemy, my brother, yes my very own,
these burning abodes whisper something to you and me,
this destruction and death says something to you and me.
War is but a matter of few days, Life cries for ages to come.
An air heavy and toxic with gunpowder,
spreading the stench of death with it,
wounds crying out with pity,
in an alley of diseases unworthy of life.
Dead children lay in the hands,
of mothers crying incessantly in nights,
the towns are dead, and so are all cities,
with faces and hearts all turned to stone.
Why do we sow guns and grenades in our fields,
instead of sowing crops of wheat and rice,
when both of our towns have alleys with ailing and hungry children?
Oh my enemy, my brother, yes my very own,
these stone turned hearts and these burning homes,
these images of destruction, and these images of death,
some in your city and some in mine,
cry out to both of us and ask until when will death and hatred eat both of us?
Come, take a vow with me today, we will not let war tear this earth.
Come, look with me onto that day, when the sun will shine brightly and cheerfully on our skies,
On all your skies, on all my skies, on all your cities, and on all my cities.
Oh my friend, my brother, yes my very own.
these burning abodes whisper something to you and me,
this destruction and death says something to you and me.
War is but a matter of few days, Life cries for ages to come...
