Tag Archives: Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Your Ocean Eyes

April 9, 2020Poemsconstant, dusk, eternal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, false, flame, passion, poetry, Satori Publishing, secrets, sun drowns, timeless, translation, truth, twilight zone, union, universal, Urdu to English, Your Ocean Eyessatoripublishing2013

On the edge of sunlight, the evening sets
Both meet in the twilight zone
Neither day nor night, neither today nor tomorrow
One moment eternal, the next up in smoke

On the edge of sunlight, for a moment or two
The flame of lips
The ache of arms
This union of ours, neither true nor false

Why keep secrets, the one constant not to blame
Speak falsely for what reason?
When in your ocean eyes
This evening’s sun drowns
People indoors will sleep peacefully …
The traveller will set off on the path.

( my translation of a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz ).

Scene

April 8, 2020Poemsbalcony, bosom, erotic, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, food for thought, lake, moon, poem, poetry, prayer, romantic, Satori Publishing, Scene, sensual, softly, timeless, translation, universal, Urdu to English, vision, winesatoripublishing2013

Along the path, shade of trees, doorway to the roof’s balcony
Above the roof, the bosom of the moon exposed, gradually
As if someone was untying her robe, slowly.
Below the balcony, shadows of a stagnant blue
A blue lake;

Quietly a bubble from some leaf ripples in the lake
Swims for a moment, floats, then bursts, softly

Very slowly, very lightly, the cool colour of wine
Poured into my glass, gently;
A glass goblet, flask, your rose-like hands
As if, far away, an image of a dream
Forms by itself, and is erased, slowly

The heart repeats the words of faith, tenderly
You said, “Softly”
Bending low, the moon said :
“Even more softly”.

(my translation of a poem by Faiz ahmed Faiz).

Prayer

April 7, 2020Poemsantidode, anxiety, declare this, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, falsehood, food for thought, higher ground, illuminate, investigate, poem, poetry, prayer, ritual, Satori Publishing, sweet antidote, timeless, translation, truth, universal, Urdu to Englishsatoripublishing2013

Come, let us also raise our hands
We who cannot recall the ritual of prayer
We who, apart from the fire of love,
Do not recall any idol, any god

Come, lay this appeal before Life, our beloved
Pour the sweet antidote of tomorrow into today’s poison
Those not strong enough to bear the weight of the times
Lighten the load, of the days and nights, on their eyelashes

Those no longer familiar with the face of dawn
Light a candle to illuminate their nights
Those whose footsteps, on any road, find no relief
Reveal to their sight the right path to travel

Those whose faith advocates falsehood and hypocrisy
May they have the courage to deny, the daring to investigate
Those who have the sword of tyranny waiting over their heads
May they gain the ability to cast off the killer’s hand

Whoever has the secret of love burning inside
Declare this today, and your burning pain will ease
The word Truth, pricks the heart like a thorn
Declare this today, and your anxiety will ease.

( my translation of a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz ).

May God Not Bring …

April 6, 2020Poemsbitterness, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, false promises, food for thought, grief, higher ground, Inspiration, May God Not Send ..., mourning, poetry, Satori Publishing, sorrows, spirit, timeless, translation, truth, universal, Urdu to English, visionarysatoripublishing2013

May God not bring you that time of mourning
When peaceful sleep is forbidden to you
Your happiness to date brought to an end
Your life poured into a cup of bitterness

The mirror of your grief melts the heart
Only a swarm of sorrows are eager to remain
Extreme pain the only feeling to remain
Only in a dream does your youth remain

The pride in your beauty completely humbled
The long nights when you thirst for peaceful rest
Your mind thirsts for someone to share your grief
Like a hopeful autumn thirsts for Spring

No forehead willing to bow on your threshold
To submit in devotion, make you rejoice
To trust in false promises of tomorrow

May God not bring you that time to remind you
The restless heart that longs for you even now
The expectant eye that looks for you even now.

(my translation of a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz).

Verse ( Last Night )

April 3, 2020Poemsbreeze, desert, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, food for thought, grief, heart, heartache, Last Night, love, memory, poem, poetry, regret, Satori Publishing, spring, timeless, translation, universal, Urdu to English, Verse, Verse ( Last Night ), wildernesssatoripublishing2013

Last night your lost memory stole into my heart
Like the Spring, stealthily, creeps into a wilderness
Like the dawn breeze, softly, tiptoes across a desert
Like the relief, without cause, visits one in sickness.

( my translation of a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz ).

Spring Came

March 29, 2020Poemsacross the board, dreams, dusty chapters, embraces, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, flowers, food for thought, higher ground, Inspiration, intoxicating, joy, love, memories, moon maidens, new angle, old accounts, perfume, poem, poetry, Satori Publishing, seasons, spirit, Spring Came, timeless, translation, truth, universal, Urdu to English, visionarysatoripublishing2013

Spring came, springing anew as if from nowhere
All those dreams, all those days of youth
That had died upon your lips
But after dying, it seemed each time,
All the flowers have bloomed afresh

Theirs the perfume of your memories
Theirs the blood of your lovers
All the anguish has boiled over
Grieving friends too are in dire straits

Lying drunk in the lap of moon maidens
All the dusty chapters of the heart
Yours, mine, all questions, all answers
Spring came, and opened up once again
A new angle to figure out old accounts.

( my translation of a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz ).

Dawn Of Freedom (August 1947)

March 27, 2020Poemsartistic, creative, culture, dawn, Dawn Of Freedom (August 1947), facing facts, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, food for thought, freedom, higher ground, History, Inspiration, inspire, lifestyle, love, memory, oppression, partition, passion, poem, poetry, Satori Publishing, separation, spirit, the basics, timeless, tragic, translation, truth, universal, Urdu to English, visionarysatoripublishing2013

This stain-polluted light, this night-ravaged dawn
This is not that break of day yearned for in expectant hope
This is not the dawn whose desired promise we carried forth
We comrades set out convinced of finding somewhere or other
In the celestial desert a haven for the stars to finally come to rest
Somewhere for the night’s slow, lazy waves to lap a distant shore
Somewhere a safe harbour to dock the ship of heartache

The mysterious pathways known only to the blood of youth
When we friends set off so many hands tugged at our clothes
Reaching out from eager bed-chambers in the Abode of Beauty
Open arms enticed us, the siren calls of bodies in heat
Very dear, but all our love was for the vision of dawn
Very near, pure rays of light rising on her glowing robes
Our longing still strong, we shrugged off our fatigue

I have heard that the dark has been separated from the light
I have heard that the journey and destination have been unified
The behaviour of our fellow sufferers has changed full circle
Pleasure of union is now pure, the pain of separation is now impure

Fire in the liver, the vision unfulfilled, the pain of heartburn
The remedies for this severance have no affect on any ailment
Whence came the beauteous morning breeze? Blew away where?
There is no news yet of the lamp at the end of the path
There is no lessening yet in the heavy oppression of the night
The hour has not come for the deliverance of heart and soul
Keep moving … keep moving … our goal has not yet been reached.

( my translation of a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz ).

Hum Dekhenge (We Shall Witness)

January 3, 2020Poemscall to arms, culture, cutting edge, death knell for dictators, facing facts, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, food for thought, higher ground, Hum Dekhenge, Inspiration, inspire, justice, Kaaba, oppressed, poem, poetry, prayer, rebellion, revolutionary, Satori Publishing, spirit, timeless, translated from Urdu, translation, truth, tyranny, universal, Urdu to English, visionary, We Shall Witnesssatoripublishing2013

We shall witness
Inevitable that we too shall witness
The day which has been promised
Written on the tablet of eternity
We shall witness

When mountains of tyranny will be rend asunder
Blown away like cotton fluff
Under the aching feet of the oppressed
The earth will tremble, quake, and shudder
And over the heads of the brutal rulers
The lightning will flash, strike, and thunder
We shall witness

When from the Kaaba, on god’s sacred earth,
All idols will be removed
We the dispossessed, exiled from the holy place,
Will be seated on cushioned thrones
All crowns will be flung aloft
All seats of power will be overturned
We shall witness

The only name to remain will be Allah
He who is absent and omnipresent
He who is the creator and the beholder
The clarion call “I am the Truth” will rise
As I am, so are you
And we, creations of God, will reign

We shall witness
As I am, so are you
We shall witness
Inevitable that we too shall witness
We shall witness.

( My take on a poem by the peerless, and ever-relevant, Faiz Ahmed Faiz).

Do Not Ask Of Me For That First Love, My Beloved

May 30, 2016Poemsartistic, aspire, creative, cutting edge, Do Not Ask Of Me For That First Love My Beloved, dramatic, facing facts, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, first love, grief, heartache, higher ground, inspire, joy, lifestyle, love, lust, major surgery, Mujh say pahli si mohabbat mere mahboob na maang, my beloved, Pakistani, passion, poetic, regret, romantic, Satori Publishing, timeless, translated from Urdu, translation, universal, Urdu to English, visionarysatoripublishing2013

Do not ask of me for that first love, my Beloved
As I understood it, having you here makes Life so luminous
Sharing your woes, I have no quarrel with sorrows of the world
Your radiant beauty blesses the earth with eternal Spring
What does this world possess to compare with your eyes?

If you were mine, Fate would bow to my command
It was not so, though I wanted it only to be so
The present time has other torments besides mere love
Other pleasures besides the thrill of coming together

Dark spells threaded on the brutal loom of Ages
Woven in silk, satin and brocade
Hand over fist, bodies sold in alleys and bazaars
Bathed in blood, shrouded in ash
Bodies forged in furnaces of pestilence
Pus oozing from their festering sores …
What can I do? My gaze keeps turning to them too
But what can I do? Though your beauty is ever attractive

The present time has other torments besides mere love
Other pleasures besides the thrill of coming together
Do not ask of me for that first love, my Beloved.

(My take on a poem by the beloved Faiz Ahmed Faiz)