Sathyu's poem

This is a poem Sathyu wrote a while back and that he read here on the street the other night for a big audience of Bhopalis. I sent it out to a few people right before setting out on the padyatra. It seems appropriate now to put it up here. It is originally written in Hindi. Here is the English translation:

Yes,
I am a rabid optimist.
For me
Every tree that continues to stand,
Every stream that continues to flow,
Every child that runs away from home,
Is an indicationThat the battle
is not only on,
It is being won.

Possibly you will tell me
about the nuclear arms race,
And all I can tell you
is that
An unknown child
held my hand
with love.

You will try to draw me
into the plateau of practical life
Tell me
that not only God but all the religious
and non-religious leaders
are dead.
And all I can tell you
is that
across the forest lives a young man
who calls the earth
his mother.

You will give me the
boring details of the rise of state power
after every revolution
And all I can tell you
is that
in our tribe
we still share
our bread.

You will reason with me
And I will talk nonsense like this.
And because the difference between reason and poetry
is the difference between breathing and living life,
I will read poems to you.
Poems full of optimism.
Poems full of dreams.
Maybe poems better than this one.