I Wanted to Become Human

Dumping trash on the roadside, buying black-market train tickets, even testifying for the guilty…
I've said it again and again:
Whatever else I do, however I do it, no matter how many lies I pass off as truth,
Only once in my life have I simply wanted to be human.

That day, though I did no wrong myself, I watched it happen,
Though I stole nothing myself, I watched the theft unfold,
I thought to myself, what's it to me? Why should I worry about someone else's wrongdoing or lies?
So setting aside all that thinking, brother, I simply wanted to be human.

I've seen such grand thieves, watched my own student disrespect me to my face, seen mothers beaten by their sons,
Truthfully, there's so much more I could tell, but let it be—what good would telling do? These days I've given up speaking,
I sit in silence now, accepting it all.
Yes, because that's it—I simply wanted to be human.

I never even open the ledger of what I've gained; the days slip away just counting what I haven't received,
Even if it means losing the one I love, let me win—this I've told God every day,
Ha ha ha! Because at any cost, I simply wanted to be human.

I fought with the rickshaw uncle over five rupees. Why shouldn't I? All that hard-earned, sweat-soaked money of mine!
But coming out of the air-conditioned restaurant, I was the one who eagerly gave the waiter a fifty-rupee tip!
Even so, listen, I'm telling you now in all truth—I simply wanted to be human.

Uncle came from the village wearing his lungi and towel—he'd come from the fields, after all!
Well, if there were no fields, where would my city have come from?
What am I thinking about all this? A field is just a field! His mud-caked body reeked of sweat, so I spoke to him from a distance and sent him away.
Once more I say, please remember this—I simply wanted to be human.

After class, friends and I gather to chat and have fun—all in the name of study, of course!
For years I've been telling my mother, with her little schooling, all sorts of lies.
Yes, yes, this very me, ever since gaining sense and reason, has simply wanted to be human.

The father who raised me from small to grown—after I grew up, because that good-sized old man couldn't fulfill my whims,
Day after day I shrank him with sharp words from big to ever smaller, and made him cry so much—who keeps count!
I mean, even so, I simply wanted to be human.