Wake Asia Wake - Part One - 5
And take the tasks in your own hands the tasks of your own fate
do not let the helper from elsewhere tell you what is best
what is best for you in his words is always infinitely better for him
Wake! Wake! Asia! Now!
The poor the misguided in streets and villages weigh on consciences
for you have always let them be in their ignominious plight
show them how share with them your superior knowledge
Wake! India! Wake!
Differences only persist because you want them to
it is enough to show them what causes their bodies to weaken
it is enough to feed their minds with that little which will grow in time
Wake! India! Wake!
If you give them no running water and the drains and pipes of evacuation
if the rubbish that piles up behind huts and mansions heaves and humps
if you dung and spray in the open air to feed legions of flies and insects
Wake! O! India! Wake!
The food that they serve you will be from unclean hands
and the tourist will bypass the hotel and soon the sub-continent
and there’d be little use in saying we the upper castes we live in godly-cleanliness
Wake! India! Wake!
And shatter the dream of the purity of untarnished blood
there are just those who are born with blood and bones legs hands eyes
and those who think they are twice-born with more than just that
Wake! India! Wake!
We have all but one mother over that great eastern divide of the Black Continent
in the nuit des temps our dreams stood up on hind legs
and uttered the words we now mouth in Babelic tongues
Wake! O Asia! Wake!
And take upon yourselves the task of showing those who falter in spent spurious dreams
that the age of conquerors is an age brought to a standstill in history books
that buying and selling is all the commerce conquerors can peddle nowadays
Wake! Asia! Wake!
(Continued in Part One - 6)
Copyright © T Wignesan | Year Posted 2012
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