There has been disaster late
In the vast Asian estate
Groups and people now donate
Steady they Tsunami's fate
Gifts or money they will pay
Sizes which no one can say
It has always been the way
Now to give or least to pray
Struck though not by human sword
Man and beast are now devoured
It has been a bitter gourd
Unto them thus now outpoured
Many lives are lost to us
Swallowed up in earthly fuss
The ill-fated omnibus
Fares a population thus.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
It's interesting that you mention that the Tsunami victims were 'struck... not by human sword.' That may be the reason why people are donating in such large numbers to them. They are innocent victims who did absolutely nothing to insitgate the death and devastation. Why haven't our hearts and donations gone out in similarly large numbers to victims of the 'human sword' in Rwanda, the Balkans, and now Sudan? Is it because the victims are seen as being somehow culpable in the violence perpetrated upon them?