Wait For Me, My Love: Excerpts From Irom Sharmila’s Poetry

‘Iron’ Sharmila’s poetry conveys, if only in part, the resolve that led to the longest hunger-strike in history.

On 9 August, 2016 Irom Sharmila breaks the fast that began 16 years ago in November 2000. Following an incident of violence meted out to civilians by the state on 2 November the next year, when ten villagers were killed by the Assam Rifles, Sharmila vowed to not drink, eat, comb her hair or look in the mirror until the Government revoked the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, AFSPA from Manipur and other parts of the North East.

As Sharmila carried on passive, but potent and forceful resistance over the years, her ideas also found a way in her poetry. In an interview with documentary filmmaker Pankaj Butalia, Sharmila said in 2004:

I think the impulse to write – to think of it as a weapon for my people...was entrusted upon me by God.

A revolution stems from ideas conveyed through words, and Sharmila found her pen ready when she embarked on a path that would deprive her of pleasure of the senses, of mundane activities like brushing her teeth and eating when she wanted to, but lead her to a cause she found worthy enough to dedicate her life to.

I have not even brushed my teeth for over four years. But the difference is I feel good about what I am doing. It makes me proud of what I am doing...but I do have the desire to live in this world – since I am human, I too want to live in this world filled with pleasure.

Irom Sharmila

When Loneliness and Despair Arrived

However, 16 years is a long time; long enough to put one in the way of several spells of loneliness and despair, emotions which also found their way into Sharmila’s poetry. In ‘Unbind Me’, she writes:

Unbind me
From this chain of thorns
That binds me in this
Narrow room
For no fault of mine
A caged bird

In this sinister prison cell
Myriad voices cascade
No, not the garrulous
Chatter of birds

Nor the crescendo of merry laughter
Never a sweet song of lullaby

But the wailing of mothers...

On Love

Over the years, Sharmila has spoken about having fallen in love with a man, but her supporters protested their union.

The man I love is waiting for me impatiently. He came here to meet me, but my supporters refused that idea.

Irom Sharmila

The object of Sharmila’s attention is a man called Desmond Coutinho, a British citizen of Goan origin, who exchanged handwritten letters with Sharmila for one year before finally being able to meet her after a two-day long fast, before Sharmila’s supporters relented and allowed the meeting.

Love also prefigures as a theme in her poetry. The first poem of the anthology ‘Fragrance of Peace’ opens with one titled ‘Love’:

...when I close my eyes forever
And my soul wings into the sky
Wait for me
My love.

This is followed by another called ‘A Fortunate Woman’:

...but I was walled by taboos
Therefore I withdrew
Reluctantly
Forget me, my love
Perhaps I belong today
To another

...Once I worshipped you faithfully
But today, you belong to another fortunate woman.

Coutinho, on the other hand, is credited to have said:

I am like Yoko Ono. Or Gandhiji’s wife. I will enable her (Irom Sharmila) to do her thing, which is give witness to the oppressed. I am marrying a mahatma and I have a rough idea that it’s not going to be an easy-going life.

Desmond Coutinho

Call to People

A lot of Sharmila’s poetry also deals with calling out to people, imploring them to fight for justice and what is right, to not mutely accept the wrongs meted out to them. In a poem (‘Be Brave, Sister’) in which Sharmila is perhaps also addressing a part of herself, she writes:

...why blame fate endlessly
Prove your strength, sister...

Dream your destiny as birthright
A high seat awaits you here

Another titled ‘Wake Up’, reads as follows:

Wake up brothers and sisters
The savior of the nation
We have come out all the way
Knowing we all will die
Why the fear is
So shaky in the heart?

Acceptance of the Path She Has Chosen

While Sharmila implores to be left alone in ‘Like a Child’:

Without malice to anybody
Without hurting anyone
With tongue held right
Let me live
Like a child

(From ‘Like a Child’)

There is also a quiet acceptance of the perils of the path she has chosen for herself, as well as the constant movement of time.

...in the course of my life’s journey
I have always done
Something or other
Slowly but surely
Being conscious of the
Inexorable passage of time
To a blind person like me
There is no day and night...

(From ‘When the Curtains Go Up’)

Not Afraid of Death or Life: Sharmila

Interviewers who met Sharmila over the years have often said that she does not come across as someone who harbours anger or bitterness. Instead there is a sense of a calm sadness, iron resolve (rightly winning her the title ‘Iron’ Sharmila) and a deep-set desire to always do right by others.

I am not afraid of being dead or alive. The fact is we are all born to die.

Irom Sharmila

As she accepts the certain reality of death, she also wants to ensure her body is not cremated, but instead put to use of the environment. In this aspect, lines of a song written by her seem relevant:

...my dead body
To reduce it to cinder
Amidst the flames
Chopping it with axe and spade
Fills my mind with revulsion
The ‘skin’ that is sure to dry out
Let it rot under the ground
Let it be of some use to the future generations
Let it transform into ore in the mines.

I’ll spread the fragrance of peace.

The eponymous song, originally untitled, was titled ‘Fragrance of Peace’ by the translator.

In what has been the longest hunger strike in the history of the world, Irom Sharmila has not consumed anything in 16 years. She has been forcefully fed by the police using a nasal tube, a plastic pipe that has also kept her alive. However, without the slightest sign of weakness or dwindling determination, Sharmila goes on to comment:

My strength, my courage has been given to me (by God). I have never felt what I am doing is a burden. But I do have the desire to live in this world – since I am human, I too want to live in this world filled with pleasure.. .Even to be able to laugh heartily or to be in solidarity with my friends is a source of strength. This is what we need as human beings...I don’t want anything different.

Here’s to friendship, solidarity and strength in the face of the toughest adversary.

The excerpts are taken from Fragrance of Peace, a collection of poems by Irom Sharmila Chano in Meitei, with English translations, published by Zubaan.