Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
What compels you to retract your testimony?
Why withhold our due, and accuse infidelity?
Our poems are sufficient proof –
As victims we praised to skies
your finesse with murder.
Who must be arraigned for our frenzy?
The sealed square meter of sky where the hangul
of our childhood love to prance?
The moon is sufficient proof –
In its light we addressed eighteen hundred
and forty-seven poems to you
to eulogise our prison.
It has been reported unto me
upon reliable authority: in long past history
the curse of life was cured simply
by exaggerating the patient’s misery.
Our prescriptions are sufficient proof –
We slept only in deathbeds
that we may inherit all secret odes
rented out to melancholy.
Have you been hired as our judge?
When will you dispense justice?
Have we been convicted yet?
Our sentences are sufficient proof –
We pine for a stiffer penalty.
Are you a bandit lying in wait?
We surrender our caravans
of our wildest dreams, our deepest regrets
and insincere condolences of close friends.
Our guides are sufficient proof –
We have forgotten the addresses
scrawled on the lines in our torn hands.