K. SATCHIDANANDAN (India)
Prof. K. Satchidanandan, former Secretary, Sahitya Akademi, is a leading and widely respected Indian poet who writes in Malayalam as well as in English. Also a literary critic, translator and editor of repute. He is the Editor of FOSWAL’s literary journal ‘Beyond Borders,’ has edited several anthologies published by FOSWAL. A monumental scholar and literary genius. Satchidanandan has 22 collections of poetry, 16 collections of translations of poetry, 18 works of literary criticism, 4 plays and 3 travelogues to his credit. He was Language Policy Consultant to the Ministry of Human Resource Department, Government of India. He is an honoured Member of the Think Tank of FOSWAL.

Daughter

(To Sabitha, suffering from Multiple Sclerosis)
I see my thirty-year old daughter
again as a six-month old.
I bathe her,wash away
the dust and muck
of thirty years.

Now she glistens like
a short Amichai poem
in the liquid glow of Heaven.
The little towel
gets wet with Time.

Beethoven raises his
more than human hands
turning the window-bars
into piano-keys.

My daughter
emerges out of a symphony
to hug me with
her rose-soft hands.

Outside, rain’s bihag :
Kishori Amonkar.

Prostitute to Her Daughter

Dear child,
say without shame
that I am your mother
and this city is your father.

Go, tell the chaste wives,
I teach their men to love.
I offered myself
in place of a thousand women
and became a saint.
Man, my child,
is endless Desire.
You should cross that sea