Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
骄傲 [1]
Meaning: Pride
Pronunciation: Jiāo’ào
Adalur 1993
You have a money-making face, says the patron,
who like an unsolicited rain upon tilled soil,
lends my grandpa one thousand rupees in 1933.
Don’t repay if you lose all the money, he adds
betting on a 13-year-old. Still tied to his brother’s
land—part serf, part brother—grandpa sets upon
his spirited pony imagining herself to be Bucephalus
or Atak, God knows what, stomp stomp stomping
her way down to Virupatchi Market,
buy – hills
them the
goods up in
in them
the sell
plains
ad infinitum till one day the thousand doubles,
triples, quadruples, and litters
all over, eventually becoming
bountiful Second World War oranges
filling grandpa’s coffers, his roving legs
settling down only three score years
later in the porch of his third house—a tropical
paradise of coffee shrubs, casuarina, jackfruit,
pepper, and cardamom.
In the hall, hangs
his rifle—silent—stories of fearless bullets
against a charging bison now a collective
inheritance. He is puffing with pride, having
just received news that periappa
has become a government lawyer—
the name board that will be hung near
the door, immune to the corruption charges
leveled against him.
_____________________
[1] The Chinese character shows a spirited horse, a wandering man with abundant resources and power
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