This poem appeared in the English version of The Red Star, a voice of the Revolutionary forces within the UCPN (M).
It is from an anthology, Poems of the People’s War, published by Ichchhuk Cultural Academy.
From redstar.com
Salute Jelwang – Krishna Sen “Ichchhuk”
November 25, 2011
Jelwang 1
Standing on the peak on the top of Lalbhanjyang 2
I’m looking far away
Towards the horizon of liberation
The high hills of sovereignty look
Standing straight silent for the mourning
In respect to the five great warriors right now
The solitary but restless hamlets, hills and plains
Are unified in the procession
Of endless journey to liberation
The deep devoted contemplation
The conscience of progression.
I look with sensibility
At all directions
Recalling the painful stories of the people
I can’t control myself, and cry
Like the red morning
The horizon in each side
Looks red-red deep dazzling red
A novel emotional image of a liberated land
Stands like a firm pillar of iron and rock
Not scared of anything
Jaimakasala, seram and Tewang 3
Shine like the sharp edge of a sword
Transfigured into new forms
As the heroes of the red class-struggle
Our Mirul and Thawang 4
Where there’s blazing
The fresh fire of innovative people’s war
Persistent and the novel history
Of embryonic new era is being written
In those novel page
Reading the new history of the people’s war
Standing on the peak of Lalbhanjyang
Like the martyr gate of your bed
I’m blazing warm fire
In my bosoms
The turbulent rays of the new time
Like a womb of fire in the red-red horizon
In an unyielding determination
I’m nurturing the determination of a new era.
The hills are not mere hills now
They are red warriors
The jungles are not jungles now
They are mass of people’s army
The villages are unified
In the camps of retaliation
On this peak of the land
Everest 5 is glowing as red flags.
Jelwang,
Standing on the peak of Lalbhanjyang,
Once a locked jail is now
An open trench of revolution like the first chautari 6 of operation
Standing at the crevice of this new epoch
I greet you with a red salute
Oh red armies of the grand battlefield
I offer you the red salute
The red salute of ultimate victory.
(Kalam 17, 2054 B.S.)
1) Name of the place in Rolpa district, also popular as historical palace of People’s War, where five Maoist cadres got martyrdom.
2) The plain area in the hill where people wait to take rest for a while taking off their loads. Here, Labhanjyang also refers to the martyrs Lai Bahadur after home the pass was named.
3. The villages of Rolpa district where People’s War was more vibrant.
4. The villages of Rolpa district where people’s war was more vibrant.
5) The Mt. Everest, the highest mountain that lies in Nepal at the northern Nepal-China border.
6) A public space under banyan trees where people gather to take rest or conduct public gatherings.
