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

Badalte mausam / Changing Seasons

The same loving words; the same sweet talk;

The same silvery days; the same fragrant night;

I always say, “You’re very beautiful.”

From you: “You alone are my destiny.”

My same old song: “I can’t live without you,

Can’t drink any other wine after drinking from your lips.”

.

All this is fine . . . but boring!

If the season doesn’t change, one becomes fed up;

If only I had once taken someone as my own—casually;

If only I had spurned you, earned your curses;

If only I had also heard: “You’re nasty!”

If only I had also said: “You’re a complete fool!”

.

Come, now let us do this so that we may taste living,

So that some window of this house may open and a fresh breeze might enter.

.

          1963

.

From: Nayā ʻahdnāmah (New Testament). ʻAlīgaṛh: ʻAlīgaṛh Buk Hāʼūs, 1965. pp. 132 – 33

             

The same loving words; the same sweet talk;

The same silvery days; the same fragrant night;

I always say, “You’re very beautiful.”

From you: “You alone are my destiny.”

My same old song: “I can’t live without you,

Can’t drink any other wine after drinking from your lips.”

.

All this is fine . . . but boring!

If the season doesn’t change, one becomes fed up;

If only I had once taken someone as my own—casually;

If only I had spurned you, earned your curses;

If only I had also heard: “You’re nasty!”

If only I had also said: “You’re a complete fool!”

.

Come, now let us do this so that we may taste living,

So that some window of this house may open and a fresh breeze might enter.

.

          1963

.

From: Nayā ʻahdnāmah (New Testament). ʻAlīgaṛh: ʻAlīgaṛh Buk Hāʼūs, 1965. pp. 132 – 33