Tag Archives: translated from Urdu

Hum Dekhenge (We Shall Witness)

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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).

(c) Satori Publishing,2020.

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

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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)

(c) Satori Publishing, 2016.