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

Qayāmat / Doomsday

No one knows why the immortal palace

Is indifferent,

Why a worthless teardrop

Enjoys repute.

.

Let friends play:

Would that the minarets of light,

Moons, skies and stars

Break and scatter.

From the mountains, plains and rivers

Rises a tremulous voice:

O immortal God, Your sovereignty is brief.

.

Let the darkness of ages

Be washed by light,

By the brook of life sprout forth,

By a new sun

In the fresh sky,

On the shoulders of Life.

The coffin of Death.

.

From: Yāden̲ (Remembrances), 1963. pp. 96 – 97

             

No one knows why the immortal palace

Is indifferent,

Why a worthless teardrop

Enjoys repute.

.

Let friends play:

Would that the minarets of light,

Moons, skies and stars

Break and scatter.

From the mountains, plains and rivers

Rises a tremulous voice:

O immortal God, Your sovereignty is brief.

.

Let the darkness of ages

Be washed by light,

By the brook of life sprout forth,

By a new sun

In the fresh sky,

On the shoulders of Life.

The coffin of Death.

.

From: Yāden̲ (Remembrances), 1963. pp. 96 – 97