Humanu

(This poem is written with inspiration I drew from hearing a story of a father who registered his new born at the Registrar of Births. When asked to fill the registration form, in the box indicating race, he wrote in English, the word ‘Human’. Perturbed, the clerk at the desk in translating it into Sinhala (1) for official purposes rewrote it as ‘Humanu’)

That first cry,

of our first ever born.

Was it a shriek,

or a screaming out ?

To tell the whole wide world,

that you were born.

 

Born to this world,

where nothing is fair.

Hunger, poverty

and raping of the forests

give meaning to the greed,

the filth that reins.

Hope is what you bring,

with your screaming.

In my mind’s eye,

you now reign supreme,

for, I just made you a member

of the human race.

Perhaps that is why,

you are now sleeping peacefully,

oblivious to what,

is to come.

But when you are up,

I want to see you cry,

even shriek and scream out loud.

Don’t you ever forget,

that you belong to the “Humanu” race.

 

Renton de Alwis

June 2009

A repost on 2 February 2013


(1) Sinhala is the language of the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka

 

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