This poem was translated by Professor Carlo Coppola as part of the MULOSIGE Translations project. You can explore our collection of Urdu Poetry here.
Zavāl kā din / Day of Decline
The day when my country’s soil,
Beautiful earth, becomes stone
And changes into
Palaces and forts,
That day wheat will burn.
.
The day when the waters of my country’s rivers
Cold water
Becomes electricity,
The means of adorning the cities’ dark nights
That day, the moon will melt.
.
The day when my country’s soft and hard breezes
Fill with the stench of peoples’ blood,
The day when the silence of the fields
Is lost in the sound of heavy metal,
On that day, the sun will die away
And the footpath of Life will curl up and go to sleep.
.
July 1959
.
From: Dard kā shahr (City of Suffering). Lāhaur: Naʼī maṭbūʻāt. 1965. p. 38
The day when my country’s soil,
Beautiful earth, becomes stone
And changes into
Palaces and forts,
That day wheat will burn.
.
The day when the waters of my country’s rivers
Cold water
Becomes electricity,
The means of adorning the cities’ dark nights
That day, the moon will melt.
.
The day when my country’s soft and hard breezes
Fill with the stench of peoples’ blood,
The day when the silence of the fields
Is lost in the sound of heavy metal,
On that day, the sun will die away
And the footpath of Life will curl up and go to sleep.
.
July 1959
.
From: Dard kā shahr (City of Suffering). Lāhaur: Naʼī maṭbūʻāt. 1965. p. 38
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