This poem was translated by Professor Carlo Coppola as part of the MULOSIGE Translations project. You can explore our collection of Urdu Poetry here.

Professor Carlo Coppola, Oakland University

 Bārish / Rain

Last night rain knocked so incessantly on the prison roof

That its sound, becoming an echo. cut through the stagnant darkness

Spreading and contracting everywhere.

I swear by these ramparts raising their heads, I thought

That, in the prison corner,

All the roads of life are closed;

But today, life sings, even in this lock-closed land.

Beauty calls the artist even in this stone-steel fort.

.

  December 1958

From: Dasht-i vafā (Desert of Fidelity), 1964. p. 158

With Munibur Rahman

Last night rain knocked so incessantly on the prison roof

That its sound, becoming an echo. cut through the stagnant darkness

Spreading and contracting everywhere.

I swear by these ramparts raising their heads, I thought

That, in the prison corner,

All the roads of life are closed;

But today, life sings, even in this lock-closed land.

Beauty calls the artist even in this stone-steel fort.

.

  December 1958

From: Dasht-i vafā (Desert of Fidelity), 1964. p. 158

With Munibur Rahman