Ritual songs and folksongs of the Hindus of Surinam

Modern socio-political compositions I
96 Modern i [Paramaribo, 1962]
On India¹

bacäiho na hari bhārata ḍūbā jāy
mela milāpa mitratā vipratā kāhū ke na suhāy,

bacäiho...

cahų disa ke ika phūṭa parata para dekhata jiyā ghabarāy,

bacäiho...

bāla vivāha kurīta desa kā are mūrakha desa cahāy,

bacäiho...

Save (won't you?), God,² India is sinking.
Union and neighbourliness,³ friendship and wisdom,⁴ appeal to no one (today).

Save...

On seeing the occurrence of divisions in all the four quarters the heart gets perplexed.
The child marriage (is) a bad custom of the country - a foolish country (alone) wishes (to continue) (it).

Save...

1 The author is not certain whether this is a genuine folksong or taken from a published work. It has evidently been inspired by the songs of some modern reform movements.

2 Hari, i.e. Viṣṇu.

3 Mel milāp, a twin-word denoting a general gregariousness.

4 Vipratā, (good qualities of) brahminhood.