अमेरिकी कवि एमानुएल ओर्तीज की कविता

अमेरिका के विद्रोही कवि एमानुएल ओर्तीज की इस कविता का हाल ही में हिंदी अनुवाद प्रतिष्ठित साहित्यिक पत्रिका पहल में प्रकाशित हुआ है. इसकी बड़ी चर्चा है और इसी वजह से हमारी जिज्ञासा मूल कविता पढ़ने की हुई. आज पेश मूल कविता, कल हम इसका हिन्दी अनुवाद लाएंगे.

A MOMENT OF SILENCE, BEFORE I START THIS POEM
Emmanuel Ortiz 9.11.02

Before I start this poem, I'd like to ask you to join me in a moment of
silence in honor of those who died in the World Trade Center and the Pentagonlast September 11th. I would also like to ask you to offer up a moment of silence for all of thosewho have been harassed, imprisoned, disappeared, tortured, raped, or killedin retaliation for those strikes, for the victims in both Afghanistan and theU.S. And if I could just add one more thing... A full day of silence for the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have diedat the hands of U.S.-backed Israeli forces over decades of occupation. Sixmonths of silence for the million and-a-half Iraqi people, mostly children,who have died of malnourishment or starvation as a result of an 11-yearU.S. embargo against the country. Before I begin this poem, two months of silence for the Blacks underApartheid in South Africa, where homeland security made them aliens in theirown country Nine months of silence for the dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,where death rained down and peeled back every layer of concrete, steel, earthand skin and the survivors went on as if alive. A year of silence for themillions of dead in Viet Nam - a people, not a war - for those who know athing or two about the scent of burning fuel, their relatives' bones buriedin it, their babies born of it. A year of silence for the dead in Cambodiaand Laos, victims of a secret war ... ssssshhhhh .... Say nothing ... wedon't want them to learn that they are dead. Two months of silence for thedecades of dead in Colombia, whose names, like the corpses they oncerepresented, have piled up and slipped off our tongues. Before I begin this poem, An hour of silence for El Salvador ... An afternoon of silence for Nicaragua... Two days of silence for the Guetmaltecos ... None of whom ever knew amoment of peace in their living years. 45 seconds of silence for the 45 deadat Acteal, Chiapas 25 years of silence for the hundred million Africans whofound their graves far deeper in the ocean than any building could poke intothe sky. There will be no DNA testing or dental records to identify theirremains. And for those who were strung and swung from the heights of sycamoretrees in the south, the north, the east, and the west... 100 years ofsilence... For the hundreds of millions of indigenous peoples from this half of righthere, Whose land and lives were stolen, In postcard-perfect plots like Pine Ridge, Wounded Knee, Sand Creek, FallenTimbers, or the Trail of Tears. Names now reduced to innocuous magneticpoetry on the refrigerator of our consciousness ... So you want a moment of silence? And we are all left speechlessOur tongues snatched from our mouthsOur eyes stapled shutA moment of silenceAnd the poets have all been laid to restThe drums disintegrating into dust Before I begin this poem,You want a moment of silence You mourn now as if the world will never be the same And the rest of us hopeto hell it won't be. Not like it always has been Because this is not a 9-1-1 poemThis is a 9/10 poem,It is a 9/9 poem,A 9/8 poem,A 9/7 poemThis is a 1492 poem. This is a poem about what causes poems like this to be written And if this isa 9/11 poem, then This is a September 11th poem for Chile, 1971This is a September 12th poem for Steven Biko in South Africa, 1977This is a September 13th poem for the brothers at Attica Prison, New York,1971.This is a September 14th poem for Somalia, 1992.This is a poem for every date that falls to the ground in ashesThis is a poem for the 110 stories that were never toldThe 110 stories that history chose not to write in textbooksThe 110 stories that that CNN, BBC, The New York Times, and Newsweek ignoredThis is a poem for interrupting this program. And still you want a moment of silence for your dead?We could give you lifetimes of empty: The unmarked gravesThe lost languagesThe uprooted trees and historiesThe dead stares on the faces of nameless children Before I start this poem wecould be silent forever Or just long enough to hunger,For the dust to bury us And you would still ask usFor more of our silence. If you want a moment of silence Then stop the oil pumpsTurn off the engines and the televisionsSink the cruise shipsCrash the stock marketsUnplug the marquee lights,Delete the instant messages,Derail the trains, the light rail transit If you want a moment of silence, put a brick through the window of Taco Bell,And pay the workers for wages lost Tear down the liquor stores,The townhouses, the White Houses, the jailhouses, the Penthouses and thePlayboys. If you want a moment of silence, Then take it On Super Bowl Sunday,The Fourth of JulyDuring Dayton's 13 hour saleOr the next time your white guilt fills the room where my beautiful peoplehave gathered You want a moment of silence Then take itNow, Before this poem begins. Here, in the echo of my voice,In the pause between goosesteps of the second hand In the space betweenbodies in embrace,Here is your silence Take it. But take it allDon't cut in line.Let your silence begin at the beginning of crime. But we, Tonight we will keep right on singingFor our dead. -