This poem was translated by Professor Carlo Coppola as part of the MULOSIGE Translations project. You can explore our collection of Urdu Poetry here.
Aurat ne janam diyā mardon̲ ko / Woman Gave Birth to Men
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the market place.
They crushed her whenever they liked and spurned her whenever they wished.
In some places she is weighed in dinars; in some places she is sold in the bazaars;
She is made to dance naked in the courts of debauchees;
She is an uninspected thing who is distributed among respectable people;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
Every tyranny is permitted for men; for woman even crying is a crime;
For men there are a thousand couches; for woman, there is only a funeral pyre;
Men have a right to every pleasure; for woman, even living is a punishment;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
They trafficked in the breasts which gave them milk;
They traded on the womb in which their bodies were formed;
They disgraced the body from which they sprang like lotuses;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
Men called man-made customs ‘God’s Command’;
They called the act of a woman throwing herself into the fire a ‘sacrifice’;
In return, for chastity they gave her bread, and that too they called a ‘favor.’
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
The world’s every dishonor is nursed in the lap of poverty;
The road which starts at starvation ends in the brothel;
Man’s lust often gives shape to woman’s sin;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
Woman is the destiny of the world, yet bodes ill fortune;
She gives birth to avatars and prophets, yet is called the daughter of Satan;
She is the unlucky mother who lies on her sons’ couch;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
.
From: Gātā jāʼe banjārā (The Gypsy Passes by Singing). Dihlī: Panjābī Pustak Bhanḍār, 1964. pp. 44 – 45
Aurat ne janam diyā mardon̲ ko is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the market place.
They crushed her whenever they liked and spurned her whenever they wished.
In some places she is weighed in dinars; in some places she is sold in the bazaars;
She is made to dance naked in the courts of debauchees;
She is an uninspected thing who is distributed among respectable people;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
Every tyranny is permitted for men; for woman even crying is a crime;
For men there are a thousand couches; for woman, there is only a funeral pyre;
Men have a right to every pleasure; for woman, even living is a punishment;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
They trafficked in the breasts which gave them milk;
They traded on the womb in which their bodies were formed;
They disgraced the body from which they sprang like lotuses;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
Men called man-made customs ‘God’s Command’;
They called the act of a woman throwing herself into the fire a ‘sacrifice’;
In return, for chastity they gave her bread, and that too they called a ‘favor.’
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
The world’s every dishonor is nursed in the lap of poverty;
The road which starts at starvation ends in the brothel;
Man’s lust often gives shape to woman’s sin;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
Woman is the destiny of the world, yet bodes ill fortune;
She gives birth to avatars and prophets, yet is called the daughter of Satan;
She is the unlucky mother who lies on her sons’ couch;
Woman gave birth to men; men gave her to the marketplace.
.
From: Gātā jāʼe banjārā (The Gypsy Passes by Singing). Dihlī: Panjābī Pustak Bhanḍār, 1964. pp. 44 – 45
Aurat ne janam diyā mardon̲ ko is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970
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