Sukhpal Singh
Years later I realized:
I did not know how to speak. . . .
How to write. . . .
My own words, I disown
Today I utter them
Tomorrow shoo the same
Poor words little rabbits
Fell prey —
To the violence of my inner noise
Words are an echo —
Of my entity!
I am insane —
So my words are insane
Words deny me
Because I deny myself
Should I accept myself —
That order returns to me. . .
And in my inner universe
It spreads like silence. . .
When silence will speak —
That is when words will echo like music
And come down forming verse
That is when, poetry —
I will not ‘sit and write’
It will happen, every moment. . . .
Translated from Punjabi by Manjit Handa
Dr Sukhpal Singh has a Doctorate in Veterinary Sciences from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada and is now a Lecturer in the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon. He published his first collection of poetry in Punjabi transliterated as And Silently Came Spring.
