This poem was translated by Professor Carlo Coppola as part of the MULOSIGE Translations project. You can explore our collection of Urdu Poetry here.
Taʻāruf / Introductions
Death, meet them,
These simple-hearted who
Neither pray nor drink,
Who are neither artful nor worldly-wise,
Who have no learning
—Of books or machines,
Of neither this world nor another.
Merely faithless in all things.
Don’t be shy, Death;
Meet them!
.
Come; you also, come on ahead,
To meet Death,
Come, you newly rich,
Don’t bother to hide your begging bowls;
There’s no life in you now, slaves of Mammon, and of Time;
Laugh with Death; woo him; please him.
Death, these are negative men,
More than negative, less than men.
Give them a sweet glance!
.
With M. H. K Qureshi
.
From: Lā = insān. (X = Man). Lāhaur: Munīr Niyāzī, 1969. pp. 76 – 77
Death, meet them,
These simple-hearted who
Neither pray nor drink,
Who are neither artful nor worldly-wise,
Who have no learning
—Of books or machines,
Of neither this world nor another.
Merely faithless in all things.
Don’t be shy, Death;
Meet them!
.
Come; you also, come on ahead,
To meet Death,
Come, you newly rich,
Don’t bother to hide your begging bowls;
There’s no life in you now, slaves of Mammon, and of Time;
Laugh with Death; woo him; please him.
Death, these are negative men,
More than negative, less than men.
Give them a sweet glance!
.
With M. H. K Qureshi
.
From: Lā = insān. (X = Man). Lāhaur: Munīr Niyāzī, 1969. pp. 76 – 77
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