Pash was the pseudonym that revolutionary Punjabi poet Avtar Singh Sandhu wrote under. Click here for an article and here for an excerpt from a book about him.

Pash, [Crudely] Translated into English from Punjabi by me

The exploitation of labour is not the most dangerous thing of all

Neither is torture at the hands of the police

Boundless greed is not the most dangerous of all.

Betrayal spurred by greed is unfortunate

And arrest without warning:

Terrible-- but not the most dangerous of all.

To be frightened into silence is unfortunate

But devoid of true danger.

To be silenced by the clangor of corruption

Even when you speak the truth-- it is unfortunate.

Squinting at pages in the pale light of a firefly-- Unfortunate.

But these things are not the most dangerous of all.

The most dangerous is silence

The man who is detached and apathetic

Who bears everything

And calls it routine.

The most dangerous of all is the demise of our dreams.

The most dangerous of all is the watch

That ticks on your wrist

But whose hands freeze under your gaze.

The most dangerous is the eye

That looks but does not see

That ignores all love and sees only

A lifeless haze in the mundane.

The most dangerous is the moon

That after a slaughter

Silently illuminates the scene

But does not bring tears to your eyes.

The most dangerous is the night

That falls on the sky of living souls

And smothers them all

In which only the cries of the innocent and snap of the oppressor's whip echo

And an eternal darkness clings at closed windows.

The exploitation of labour is not the most dangerous thing of all

Neither is torture at the hands of the police

Boundless greed is not the most dangerous of all.