The 18th of June is Goa Revolution Day, which has been celebrated since 1980. It marks the day in 1946 that the movement for independence from Portugal came into its own. Public meetings, such as the one addressed by Ram Manohar Lohia and Julião Menezes on 18 June 1946, were illegal under colonial rule, and therefore suppressed. For the next 15 years the Portuguese authorities faced a rising tide of resistance to their rule, in forms ranging from peaceful satyagraha and the formation of anti-colonial political parties to direct action carried out by the Azad Gomantak Dal. In December 1961, the Indian military finished what others had started and launched Operation Vijay, which swept into Goa and, in three days, put an end to 450 years of Portuguese rule. Goa was annexed to India, along with Damão and Diu, the even smaller remnants of the Portuguese Estado da Índia.
The Goan writer Laxmanrao Sardessai was jailed twice by the Portuguese for his involvement in the Goan independence movement. In the early 1960s, the newly-minted union territory of Goa faced the prospect of being merged into the neighboring state of Maharashtra, which Sardessai vehemently opposed and agitated against. While the following poem commemorates the historic actions of 1946, it was published during the period in which Sardessai wrote poems in Portuguese (as opposed to short stories in Marathi, which made up the overwhelming bulk of his literary output) as part of his campaign against merger. These poems were published in the Portuguese-language newspapers A Vida and O Heraldo, the latter of which continues today, having switched to publishing in English in 1983.
Enjoy, folks, and here's to the continuing struggle against colonialism in all its forms!
D.A.S.
"18 de Junho"
Laxmanrao Sardessai
publicado no jornal A Vida,
18 Junho 1966
Porque será, ó 18
de Junho,
Que estás tão
desolado?
Será porque vês
Extinguir-se,
lentamente,
A chama que te
animara
Há vinte anos
E o sonho que teus
sequazes
Sonharam
Duma Goa livre e
bela?
Será porque tanto
sangue
Que teus heróis
verteram,
Foi em vão
E só lhes trouxe
Miséria e lágrimas
E nova escravidão?
Será porque medrou
nesta terra
O mal e esvaiu-se o
bem
E os vermes
tripudiam
Sobre a carcassa?
E estertores
retumbam
Nos lares?
E terroriza a queda
Dos valores morais?
Será porque
corações inocentes
Choram a maldade
dos potentados?
Será porque os
ídolos de barro
Sorriem para
escárneo
Dos bons e pacatos
E os criminosos se
arvoram em juizes
E os justos se
tornam cobardes?
Não chores, não,
ó 18 de Junho,
Tu inspiraste um
povo inteiro
A sofrer e morrer
Por um ideal!
Do teu seio sairá,
em breve,
Outro 18, belo e
radiante,
Que verá teus
sonhos
Tomar vulto e
brilhar
Como minaretes
dourados
Nos céus azuis
desta terra,
Hoje calcada,
Ó dia glorioso
Somos teus filhos.
Filhos de Revolução
E tu és nosso pai
Pai de heróis,
Que sabem sofrer
por um ideal.
***
"18th of June"
Laxmanrao Sardessai
Published in the newspaper A Vida,
18 June 1966
Why is it, oh 18th
of June,
That you are so
forlorn?
Is it because you
see
The flame that
animated you
Twenty years ago
Being slowly
extinguished
Along with the
dream that your followers
Dreamed
Of a Goa free and
beautiful?
Is it because so
much of the blood
Your heroes shed
Was in vain
And only brought
them
Misery and tears
And a new slavery?
Is it because evil
has thrived in this land
And good has
evaporated
And the worms
rejoice
Over its carcass?
And death-rattles
resound
In the homes?
And the decay of
moral values
Terrifies you?
Is it because
innocent hearts
Weep at the
wickedness of the rulers?
Is it because clay
idols
Smile in mockery
Of the good and
peaceful
And criminals
pretend to be judges
And the just become
cowards?
No, do not weep, oh
18th of June,
You inspired an
entire people
To suffer and die
For an ideal!
From your breast
will soon come
Another 18th,
beautiful and radiant,
That will see your
dreams
Take shape and
shine
Like golden
minarets
In the blue skies
of this land,
Today downtrodden
Oh glorious day
We are your
children.
Children of the
Revolution
And you are our
father
Father of heroes,
Who know how to
suffer for an ideal.
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