Color Hiroshima
By Laltu
Pink in a black and white photograph
that got evaporated
we look at color Hiroshima with eyes wide open
well aware that color darkness is all around us
Hibakusha is the color of life
It is the color of chromatic pieces of our love
flying over the seats,beyond the slide-show
the monsters look similar to us
those who have no country, no earth they have
truly colorless they are
who want to snatch away greenery from the earth
the questions do not stop
that got tinged in spotted desires of ours
remembrance of Hiroshima floats around for a while
a golden gusto of dawn
spreads across an utterly dark room
(Translated from Hindi by Bharatbhooshan Tiwari)
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Laltu (b 1957) is scientist, poet, fiction writer and commentator. At present he is Professor at the Center for Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics, IIIT-Hyderabad (India). He has also participated in several people’s movements, including grassroots science education , literacy, etc.
He has published more then 200 poems and 25 short stories in leading Hindi magazines and has written several opinion editorial articles and reviews. Two collections of his poetry have appeared – Ek Jheel Thee Barph Ki, Dairy mein Teywees October and Log Hi Chunenge Rang – as well as a work of fiction – Ghooghney. He has translated literature for children into Hindi from English and Bengali, and has published a book of poems for children – Bhaiya Zindabad. He has also translated twelve chapters of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States into Hindi.
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