निकारागुआ के महाकवि एर्नेस्तो कार्देनाल की कविता
सेलफ़ोन

अनुवाद: मंगलेश डबराल

 

CELL PHONE

Ernesto Cardenal, Translation by Daniela Gioseffi

 

You talk into your cell phone
and prattle and talk, 
laughing into your cell phone– 
never knowing how it’s made, 
much less how it works, 
but what does that matter? 
The trouble is you don’t know
exactly as I didn’t 
that many people die in the Congo—
thousands of thousands! 
for your cell phone. 
People die in the Congo. 
in the Congolese mountains is coltan 
(as well as gold and diamonds) 
Coltan used in cell phone condensers. 
To control the mineral, 
multinational corporations 
wage an unending war 
5 million dead in 15 years. 
Corporations don’t want it to be known 
that the Congo is a country of immense wealth 
with poverty-stricken people.
80% of the world’s coltan 
reserves are in the Congo. 
The coltan has been there 
for three thousand million years. 
Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Sony 
buy the coltan, 
the Pentagon too, The New York 
Times corporation, too. 
They don’t want it to be known,
and they don’t want the war to stop 
in order to continue seizing the coltan. 
Children of 7 to 10 years extract the coltan
because their little bodies fit into the tiny holes 
for 25 cents a day 
and loads of children die
from breathing the coltan powder
or from hammering the rock
that collapses on top of them 
The New York Times, too, 
doesn’t want it to be known 
and that’s why this organized crime
remains unknown, 
this organized crime
of the multinationals. 
The universal spirit of compassion feels 
truth, justice and love, 
and the truth
the importance of the truth 
that sets us free. 
There’s this truth about coltan, 
coltan inside your cell phone
on which we talk, prattle, 
giggle and laugh into our cell phones.

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