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

 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