Do Something, Brother
Do Something, Brother M Gopalakrishna Adiga (1918-1992): Kannada poet. Translated Ibsen and Whitman into Kannada. Edited Sakshi, a literary magazine I. Do something, brother: keep doing something, anything; you mustn’t be idle. pull out this plant, nip this little leaf, crush that flower. There’s grass, run your brand through it, burn it like Lanka. Tiny butterflies, parrots, sparrows— chase them, catch them, pluck their wings, pull out their fur and feather. There, in the garden, jasmine and the banana’s gold grow for the wild elephant’s feet. I I. All over the walls virility’s master-switches itch for your fingers; close your eyes and pull down twenty of them. Earth, water, the skies, they’re all your geese with golden eggs: gouge them out, slash them. ‘Do, or die’, they say. Disasters are the test for your genius’s galloping dance: something must crash every minute. Brother, act, act at once, do something. Thought’s weights and measures are all for the past, for the...