Last Days On Motherland Poem by Melam Tashi Tamang

The day you broke my heart,
Made me the best son of our motherland,
I don’t know whether to thank you or not,
But I’m glad that you made me a hero.

The day you broke my heart,
Was the day I started drinking brandy,
As I was not able to bear the pains,
That you gifted on my birthday.

But the very next day,
I joined the armed force,
Three months of training,
And I was ready to be on the border.

Nine hours of journey was filled with chorus,
Holding a bottle of brandy,
I sang a song along with other soldiers,
The song that made me think of you.

The moment I started the song,
Tears rolled down my cheek.
Blinded my eyes,
And made me sick.

The sorrowful moment didn’t last long,
Dreadful was the battlefield as I was holding AK-47,
Several other angry sons of our motherland were there,
Striking off the rebels’ head.

I saw our motherland crying for help,
She was been harmed a lot,
Tears was rolling down her tender cheek,
And I was not able to bear her pain.

I started aiming at the heads of the rebel,
And killed as many as I could,
I heard lots of screams of soldiers,
The screams of love to their motherland.

I heard lots of sound of bullets,
And the explosives everywhere,
The streams of blood were flowing,
And corpses of rebel were lying on the ground.

Suddenly a bullet penetrated my heart,
But the pain was nothing,
When compared to the pains that you made me feel,
So I kept on bearing until I fall on the ground.

By the time we finished wiping the tears,
That rolled down our mother’s cheek,
Our mother was smiling again,
She was wounded a little but would recover soon.

Everybody at the camp were overjoyed,
To return to their families and loving ones,
But I couldn’t share my pride and happiness like them.
As I was closing my eyes forever.

Goodbye dearest mother;
May no rebel ever harm you, if so,
They must dare to face your sons,
“Palden Drukpa, Gyalo! ” were the last words from me.