Aamir Aziz

 (English translation of Aziz’s poem, Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega)

Kill us, we will become ghosts and write

of your killings, with all the evidence.

You write jokes in court;

We will write ‘justice’ on the walls.

We will speak so loudly that even the deaf will hear.

We will write so clearly that even the blind will read.

You write ‘black lotus’;

We will write ‘red rose’.

You write ‘injustice’ on the earth;

We will write ‘revolution’ in the sky.

Everything will be remembered;

Everything recorded

So curses may be sent to you;

So your faces may be smeared;

Your names and your faces will be remembered;

Everything will be remembered;

Everything recorded.

[This poem by Aamir Aziz, a young activits poet-musician from Delhi, became internationally famous after  the guitarist and co-founder of the English band Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, recited it at a London event demanding the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Waters noted that Aziz was involved in activism against PM Narendra Modi and his “fascist and racist Citizenship law”.

Aamir Aziz is associated with left cultural progressive movement for more than one decade. He is inspired many people for their revolutionary artistic works like Indian cultural activist Gorakh Pandey and Mukti Bodh, Black African-American musician and folk artist like B.B. King, Nina Simone, Woody Guthrie, Johny Cash and Bob Dylan. As a theater artist Amir took part in many theater plays and street plays which largely symbolizes the social issues of common people. He gained fame across the country with his song on Youtube, Achhe Din Blues, which has received almost 250,000 views since it was released before the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. It was inspired by the two men being lynched in Jharkhand because they were suspected to be cattle smugglers. His song is a meditation on the state of the nation, touching upon the murders committed in the name of cattle, caste-driven abuse, inflammatory TV punditry and aggressive nationalism.]