Who calls you a robber, o friend?
Who calls youa thief?
All around, the robbers beat their drums
and the thieves reign.
Who is the lord of justice
judging thieves and robbers?
Ask him, who is nota robber today
throughout the world?
O Supreme Judge, hold high your mace of justice;
The great are great today
stealing the wealth of the weak.
The greater the robbery, theft, cheating
and exploitation,
the higher the status is in the United Nations now!
The palaces ofkings rise, being built
with the congealed blood-bricks of their subjects.
The docoait-richmen run their factories
by destroying a million dwelling houses.
Fraud machinemen,
you have set up your machines to grind men;
the hungry people go in but come out
like pressed sugar-cane.
The machinemen, squeezing a million people’s humanity,
fill up their cups with wine
and their earthen jars with gold.
The usurers grow fat-bellied on the food
the distressed need;
Destroying the dwelling-houses
ofthe hungrymen,
the landlords go riding horses.
Merchants have set up the brothels of economy
in the world;
Sin, Satan and Cup-bearers
sing there the victory ofKuvera.
Losing bread, health, life, hope,
language and all, the bankrupt man is leading
to a terrible fall.
There is no way of escape—all around,
the economy-fiend has dug trenches.
The whole world isa prison where
robbers are the guards;
All thieves and robbers are cousins;
All imposters are friends.
Who calls you a robber, o friend?
Who says, you steal?
You may have stolen money
or household utensils,
But you have not dug a dagger
in some one’s tender-heart.
You may be thieves, all right,
but not inhuman like them.
Like Ratnakar,
still you may become Valmiki
when you meet a real man.
30.6.2017 Sirajgan
