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

Usse nah ḍhūnḍo / Don’t Seek Him Out

Don’t seek him out;

Don’t seek him out for he will not be found anywhere;

Now he was here, now he was there;

From where has the news of anyone come, or will ever come?

.

He was a waft of fresh breeze

Which gave to the garden of life’s desire

The colour of the smell of spring,

Then passed away.

Never say he’s dead. 

.

New Delhi  ∙ 11 January 1966

.

From: Yāden̲ (Remembrances), 1963. p. 96

Usse nah ḍhūnḍo is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970

             

Don’t seek him out;

Don’t seek him out for he will not be found anywhere;

Now he was here, now he was there;

From where has the news of anyone come, or will ever come?

.

He was a waft of fresh breeze

Which gave to the garden of life’s desire

The colour of the smell of spring,

Then passed away.

Never say he’s dead. 

.

New Delhi  ∙ 11 January 1966

.

From: Yāden̲ (Remembrances), 1963. p. 96

Usse nah ḍhūnḍo is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970

             

This poem was written on the day Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-1966) died in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where he had gone to sign the Tashkent Declaration, a peace agreement between India and Pakistan which ended the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War; the agreement was ratified on 10 January; the prime minister died the following day; the poet had a great respect for him; see “Tāshqand kī shām / Tashkent Evening.”