good morning bandung (an exercise in deepchandi) by Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh

"half-starving in order to rebuild."

good morning bandung (an exercise in deepchandi)
by Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh 

the natives
are winning but

 

the war has
ruined all the

 

factories they
cannot rebuild

 

them the work
ers in cities

 

are starving
half-starving in

 

order to
rebuild all the

 

factories the
peasants must first

 

start growing
more food they can

 

do this by
mechanizing

 

all their farms
only, they cannot

 

mechanize
the farms the war

 

has ruined
all the factories

Previously published in Modern Poetry in Translation. Translated by Aditya Bahl.