Narayan (India): Preparations of War

Preparations of War

by Kunwar Narayan (trans. Vinay Dharwadker)

After thousands of years

like the same beaten-up question

the same beaten-up man is still being asked

"Who are you?

Where do you live?

What's your name?"

The prisoner who patrols

a motionless octagonal cell

holds three guards captive at the same time.

Everywhere outside

a forest of iron bars has spread its stranglehold

like a magnet's invisible lines of force.

And this is the solid proof of the success

of a massive buildup of arms

that as soon as we have a gun in our hands

enemy heads

begin to appear all around us.