First, they burned jungles,
cornfields and hungry huts.
Burnt cots, almirahs and clothes,
and stumps of the remaining trees--
the same ash seekers
Then they made our children
carry the ashes on their mule backs.
Again they burnt the whole landscape--
wheat fields, barns,
and my beautiful wooden house.
Slowly as we watched
they burnt the whole village.
Powerless, this moment
we stand shivering in the cold
alone, bare and bleak
in this deserted village.
Oh again, once again is coming this way
the procession of the Ash seekers
Now, not even
the skin of the earth remains.
What shall we burn
to produce ash for them?
Really, we have nothing left
except these fragile bodies
Would they now accept
the ash of our charred bodies.
[Translated from the Nepali by Yuyutsu RD Sharma]
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