My friends now and then, send poems and write ups in Tamil. The poems by Manushyaputhiran are very unique. I know nothing about poems; even I could understand and appreciate his poems. It is simple yet powerful, more like Einstein’s equation. I have tried to translate it into English, I know it is a poor translation; it might have killed the soul and the style of the poem. But something is better than nothing. Real expert (poet) will one day translate it beautifully, till then tolerate this translation.
Entry of a character
Today morning
At eight thirty sharp
A character from a story
Invaded my life
Have I written the sentence correctly?
It seems to be perfect.
I am not a story teller
And there are no stories about me either
The character, having nowhere to go
Intruded my life
Narrating my favorite story
Of my favorite author
I enquired, “Coming from there”
The character vehemently denied
Then named another author
That writer is known for
Killing all characters in the middle
Thus I discovered
The character is bluffing.
‘I have a name’
Proclaimed the character.
But, I refused to believe that name
No writer worth his name
Ever names with that kind of name
In this business
It is religiously practiced.
But
I had no doubt whatsoever
In believing
The character is indeed a character.
The character sat on the chair
Just like a character
Its opening sentence
Just like a character
It touched our hearts
At right place, at right time
Just like a character
Out of curiosity, I asked
Why are you wearing scrambled dress?
It narrated a story.
Where are the missing pages of your diary?
It narrated another story
Why are you uneasy, constantly watching your back?
It narrated the strangest of all stories
But for the question:
Where are you from?
Silence, deafening silence
Silence of a character
disturbs our being more than its words.
Conversing with the character
Is mind numbing
It converts everything into a story
I volunteered to take the character to my friend
It was terrified to meet him
Who contaminates all with his emotions
And begged me, not to bother.
Changed the topic and asked
Why did you step out of the story?
With a melancholic voice
It replied
Misery of a half-baked character
Can’t be understood by a reader.
The character speaks
Looking into my eyes
Never have I looked at the eyes of a human
Avoiding eyes liberates me
From the burden of responsibilities
But, in case of the character
It is impossible to avoid its eyes
Many a times its eyes resemble ours
Or else reminds some unforgettable eyes of our life.
Terminating a character in a book
Is so easy
Close the book, the character ends
Moving away from a character in a drama
Is too easy
Screen falls, the character dies
Destroying a character in a movie
Is also easy
Lights on, the character evaporates
But the character entering in life
Dissipates all cherished regulations
Every tiny act
Every momentary thought
Transformed into a fiction
The way we expel a person
One can’t expel the character
The way we reject the love
One can’t ignore its presence
With the remorseful heart
Enquired the possibility of sharing
One life
Between the person and the character.
The character replied
At no point of time
No character ever becomes a person
But
Is it not possible for every person
To become a character one day?
It is then, I began to understand
The meaning of its entry into my life.
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