Revathi, Kuttu: A Tamil Poet Packing a Punch

The Fiends that Fetter Us

sister… still many more breasts

for us to mould as if from clay

in this era when living breasts are bitten

by stones or by the tips of knives

they’re like the grain that feeds our world

but no fences to protect them

and why are birds of prey rooting in those silos?

eating sunshine straining to draw breath

from an arid field

that old woman’s breasts

fiends that fetter her

hanging low

knocking against the chest

like dried-up history beyond the borders on maps

not unlike those fiends that’s why sister

breasts like freshwater ponds to drink deep from

let’s not make them vessels of unending misery

for a day at least let’s make those breasts stones

to use in slings

let’s wander with a solitary breast

and carry our sun above us

– Kutti Revathi

Some lines in this poem are so hard-hitting. Let's make breasts 'stones to use in slings' - yes, that's given power to these appendages of ours that are of little use to us after children have grown up.

‘The Fiends that Fetter Us’ is meant as a translation of a famous alliterating phrase – nammai pidittha pisaasugal – from the classic poet Subramania Bharati, quoted here by Revathi.

Kutti Revathi is a Tamil poet. This poem was translated by Padma and Vivek Narayanan. Vivek's a friend - met him in Delhi when I was in college. He had given feedback on my poems and said they have potential.

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