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

Dil ke andar / Inside the Heart

Inside the heart

Lies hidden a reality

Before which

All the pleasures of the world,

All its scenes,

Are meaningless, absurd –

To be sure, these

Are things of religions, of reason,

All, a labyrinth of words.

To show that reality in words

impossible!

To discover it in things

Impossible!

People, you have wronged yourselves

By picking up this world’s pleasures.

People who hate suffering and pain!

Look, look inside your heart

A reality lies hidden there

Before which

All the pleasures of this world

All its scenes.

Are meaningless, absurd.

    February 1964

.

From: Dard kā shahr (City of Suffering). Lāhaur: Naʼī maṭbūʻāt. 1965. pp. 63 – 64

             

Inside the heart

Lies hidden a reality

Before which

All the pleasures of the world,

All its scenes,

Are meaningless, absurd –

To be sure, these

Are things of religions, of reason,

All, a labyrinth of words.

To show that reality in words

impossible!

To discover it in things

Impossible!

People, you have wronged yourselves

By picking up this world’s pleasures.

People who hate suffering and pain!

Look, look inside your heart

A reality lies hidden there

Before which

All the pleasures of this world

All its scenes.

Are meaningless, absurd.

    February 1964

.

From: Dard kā shahr (City of Suffering). Lāhaur: Naʼī maṭbūʻāt. 1965. pp. 63 – 64