A Dear Departure of a Subaltern Revolutionary
POETRY FORMAT, 24 Aug 2020
Udaya R. Tennakoon – TRANSCEND Media Service
A Tribute to Pradeep Weerakoon’s Death
Solitary evening, smoky flames upon your funeral file
Kathmandu sky embarrasses by mundane glamour
Shortly and widely touched relative´s clouds sway
A subaltern human leaves us placing pain in stagnant water away
Another motherland which is he welcome
Stamped visa expired never is questioned
Less than nothing to life you saintly satisfy
End of the life you gave us a shock beginning
A Revolutionary to whom he would have never realised
A traitor to his own tribe by which he was despised
Doubtful hope and hopeless smile never shaded and ruined
Accustomed living with Nepali folks was a way of life
Recorded numbers from prison to the death
The closest comrades never left your bed
The fight with your Death you know the day and night
Though Hands upped refugee was cast by so called humanity
Your name may memorise up on your asylum status
Grave or ash may sprinkle to soul and heart of pinnacles
Not last but least to keep on the earth from below to the history
A tiny symbol, the greatness is rarely seen by truth and the Justice
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Pradeep Weerakoon from Sri Lanka was a refugee in UNHCR Nepal. He had to die having suffered from Tuberculosis. During the war time in Sri Lanka, he was arrested and kept under the so called prevention of Terrorist act by branding as “Sinhala Tigers”. The reason was that his political activity supports for the Tamils rights and against war. As a theatre man, and a cultural activist he contributed his mind and body for a better world which the nation failed to understand. He lived more than four years in Prison and eight years in Nepal with great difficulties and finally left the world by showing the reality of suppressed and depressed humanity.
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Udaya R. Tennakoon – Lives in Switzerland. Poet/ Diaspora Writer, Journalist, Dramatist, Peace, Human Rights and Political Activist. Master of Art in Peace and Conflict Transformation. More about the poet may follow this link
Tags: Activism, Bangladesh, Human Rights, Obituary, Poetry, Refugees, Revolution, Sri Lanka, UNHCR
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 24 Aug 2020.
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