Tag Archives: oppression

A Few Days More

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A few days more, my dearest, only a few days
We are forced to draw breath in the shadow of tyranny
Bear this injustice a while longer, and tremble, and weep
By our forefathers’ legacy we have been crippled

Our bodies imprisoned, our feelings enchained
Our thoughts captive, our speech sanctioned
Credit to our courage that we still go on living
Is life but a pauper’s loose cloak, on which
Every hour a patch of pain is stitched?

But now the period of cruelty has few days left
A little more patience, our pleading has few days left
A long time in the scorched wilderness of this world
We have to exist, but this is not how we have to live
Alien hands causing unspeakably heavy oppression
Bear it today, but it will not be borne always

This dust of sorrow flames out from your beauty
This the measure of your defeated two-day youth
The pain of the useless glow from moonlit nights
The heart’s pointless beat, the body’s hopeless cry
A few days more, my dearest, only a few days.

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

(c) Satori Publishing, 2020.

Dawn Of Freedom (August 1947)

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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 ).

(c) Satori Publishing, 2020.