“Blood” Brothers
or “Bloody” Brothers under the Banner
for the DEAD in the Struggle for EELAM
by T.Wignesan
“A
dying people tolerates the present, rejects the future, and finds its
satisfactions in past greatness and
half-remembered
glory.”
“A
strong man makes a weak people. [A] Strong people don’t need a strong man.”
John Steinbeck (Nobel
Prize 1962)
I
Ages from now, let
it not be said:
Blood spills only as brother dies.
Ages from now, let
not peace be bled
By chances lost now in sighs.
To the high
nor low slams the door
To him who seeks the Law and more.
Take, take the Golden Mean
way!
Truth your only key, don’t ever slay!
Where the elephant
roams un-tethered free,
The familiar myna
will echo carefree
Words of yore buried
in sacred memory:
One breed, one species carved in
ivory.
No greater fear simmers
in the lowlands
Than the stealth of brother against
brother;
No higher disdain
festers in the highlands
Than vengeance
lying in wait for the other.
II
Think not of the
promises made and broken,
Think only of the time lost and
forsaken.
Every hour, every day,
a life blown or taken;
Every month, every year,
a people woe-driven.
To the high nor low
slams the door
To him who seeks the Law and more.
Take, take the Golden Mean
path!
Truth your only key, never the lathe!
Think of Prince Paranirupasingham who to succour
King Jayavira’s
queen, to
Abandoned to court
intrigue, schemes and wiles encore:
A princely retreat, a
physician’s penance alone.
First governor, then regent, the last Jaffna King Cankili
Learnt best the conqueror's cruel art of slaughter;
Then, fired by the
local converts' iniquitous treachery,
Revolted too late,
his head the butt of lofty laughter.
Think of C.P. Ramanathan the island’s cause to defend
Sailed over choppy seas past wild submarines
To raise the
nation’s flag in the court of the Empire’s den,
His homeward chariot
drawn by one peoples’ teens.
III
What shame if might
measures not with muscle?
What disgrace awaits those who fail?
Should wanting life be
held lèse-majesté to a tussle?
Should a nation thrive as in a sundered
jail?
To the high nor low slams the door
To him who seeks
the Law and more.
Take, take the Golden Mean road!
Truth your only key, never the sword!
Decades from now
sawn men will in right ask:
Had we then no will to attend to our
wounds?
Should not the White
Master be called back to task
To bear the burden
of our graveyard mounds?
What guidance should
wise men need
More than their own tested counsels?
Lay, lay
aside the pride of higher breed
Like two strong men upright in
councils!
IV
People are made to feel
their lives rendered great
By what their leaders do to invoke fate;
Destiny asks not who
may stand in as its fated mate,
When all around
lives are lost through hate.
To the high nor low slams the door
To
him who seeks the Law and more.
Take, take the Golden Mean way!
Truth the only key, no, never slay!
If the Lion strays
from its prescribed domain,
The Tiger will seek to sink its fangs
in flanks.
Two kings bide their
time in a land full of bane,
While the common
folk lie razed by tanks.
V
Seek not to replace
life with conundrums.
Seek only a life-giving solution.
Herald not the
arrival of the enemy with drums.
Let only your heart speak in
absolution.
The mountain cannot
reach up to the sky.
The lake at the summit is full.
If monsoons come,
calling cranes will cry.
Kindred spirits will rally in full.
To the high nor low slams the door
To
him who seeks the Law and more.
Take,
take the Golden Mean way!
Truth the only key, no,
never ever slay!
Can a people simply
grow strong in broken places
While strong men before the hour
vacate places?
“Man can be
destroyed but not defeated.
Man can be defeated but not destroyed.”
© T.Wignesan 2005 -
"The Asianists' Asia", Centre de Recherches sur les Etudes Asiatiques,
B.P. 90145,
94004 Créteil Cedex,
France
Tel. – 33 - 0142072517
E-mail: Wignesh@aol.com
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