This poem was translated by Professor Carlo Coppola as part of the MULOSIGE Translations project. You can explore our collection of Urdu Poetry here.
Kutte / Dogs
These dogs, useless wanderers of the streets,
Those who are given to the taste for begging,
Their asset—the curse of the age;
Their earnings, being rebuked by the whole world;
No rest at night; no rest at dawn;
A home in filth, an abode in gutters.
If they quarrel, then let them battle one another;
Give them a piece of bread.
They receive kicks from everyone;
They die starving.
If these oppressed creatures would lift their heads,
Then humankind would forget all rebellion
If they want to, they could make the world theirs;
They could chew the bones of their masters.
Someone should make them aware of their baseness;
Someone should twist their sleepy tails.
.
From: Naqsh-i faryādī (Image of the Supplicant). Dihlī: Urdū Ghar, 1941. pp. 81 – 82
Kutte is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970
These dogs, useless wanderers of the streets,
Those who are given to the taste for begging,
Their asset—the curse of the age;
Their earnings, being rebuked by the whole world;
No rest at night; no rest at dawn;
A home in filth, an abode in gutters.
If they quarrel, then let them battle one another;
Give them a piece of bread.
They receive kicks from everyone;
They die starving.
If these oppressed creatures would lift their heads,
Then humankind would forget all rebellion
If they want to, they could make the world theirs;
They could chew the bones of their masters.
Someone should make them aware of their baseness;
Someone should twist their sleepy tails.
.
From: Naqsh-i faryādī (Image of the Supplicant). Dihlī: Urdū Ghar, 1941. pp. 81 – 82
Kutte is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970
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