The voices of the republic include dreamers, dissenters and rebels against borders and authorities. One poem of resistance, from a different Indian language, each day this week.Credit: Mike Lewinski/Flickr CC BY 2.0In a country that has no ‘national language,’ the presence of many languages is at once beautiful and politically charged.For a week from Republic Day, The Wire presents poems that throw open how our languages can be oppressive, oppressed and insurgent. The poems are curated by Poorna Swami and Janani Ganesan, from a special edition of Asymptote, an online journal for international literature in translation.Each of these poems is a work of resistance but also of presence – asserting a future where our many languages, while different, are more accommodating of each other.#5Dis Helluva WorldPappy precious, do de gutsme cut-a-way b’come mine?Sonny b’lovd, de gut-n-heartye rip-a-way is everyone’s.Wasn’t it all good ‘oney, papa,de juice ‘n sap me sucked up?Son, dat ‘oney ye slurped-ownis ya blood, ya red hot blood.Pap, where-es gone de stalky bundwe’d mudded up amid our paddy ?It melted ‘way with de steam-hot ricekiddo, ye just grubbed down ya gut.De big mountains afarain’t ours at all, mi-son;De backwaters ‘n shorestoo ain’t no one’s, sonny.Creeps, beasts, bugs-n-birds,sea-lions, beings of de wild;potent gods of many ages,join us, dancers in de soil;Here, where we kick alive, sonny,in dis helluva world, on de earth.Mi-blessed son, dis damn world,where we fret-n-fight-n-fade.— Anvar AliTranslated from Malayalam by Rizio Yohannan RajRizio Yohannan Raj is the author of three books of poetry, two novels, two academic volumes, and many essays and translations published in India and abroad. This translation first appeared in the Winter 2017 issue of Asymptote, as part of its Indian Languages Special Feature. Asymptote is the winner of the 2015 London Book Fair’s International Literary Translation Initiative Award and a founding member of The Guardian’s Books Network with Translation Tuesdays.