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

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