New countries at every street corner

When things first started/
New countries
there are at the street corners
Emotional breakdown
and communication breakdown
and government crackdown
and people were knockdown
and a commotion in the town
Yet the airs of revolution blow around
putting down the dry cyclone of clouds

When there is a realisation/
New countries
there are at the street corners
It is the day of remembrance,
in the name of the land
and in the name of freedom
and in the name of the peace
Each leikai, each leirak is a country now
What more can we ask from the gods now?
The bells of liberty are ringing loud and clear:
We are free!
We are fucking free now!

New countries
there are at the street corners
Does it sound absurd to you
that every leikai is a country?
There is too much confusion in this new situation
Though we are resilient taking caution,
happily all the leaders will be presidents now
people will no longer be confused about nationality
empty promises will go up in smoke
society will be undressed to its bare minimum needs
on a new year's day, we can go to another country for a picnic.
And then it was so true, home was where the hatred is
We are proud, then we were divided, now we will be in unity
all of us in a little place we can call ours.

New countries
there are at the street corners
Everywhere the people are engaged
no more in stitching oversized garments for the verdant landscapes
but in composing the national anthems, recreating national flags
and deciding the national animals and national birds
Blood brothers will have different passports
And their sisters might become foreigners when they are married
We will have so many friends from different nationalities
While there are headache and heartache and heartbreak
Time will heal everything as days and nights seesaw
None matters now but the newfangled freedom.




* A leikai or a leirak, in Manipuri, is some sort of a residential colony or a cluster of residential areas. Two leikai/leirak are separated from each other by a street address e.g., Sagolband Moirang Leirak.