A day will come again

When earthen-lamp eyes will be extinguished,

When hands—lotuses—will wither

And speech and sound, like butterflies,

Will fly away from the tongue-leaf;

In the depths of a dark sea

All forms will be lost.

Blossoming like buds,

Laughing like flowers.

The circulation of blood, the frothing of the heart—

All melodies—will go to sleep.

And on the velvet of blue space

This laughing diamond chip—

Or my paradise, my earth,

Its mornings, its evenings,

Without knowing, without understanding—

Will go away after weeping like dew

On a handful of dust called humankind.

Everything will be forgotten!

Everything will be removed

From the beautiful temple of memories;

There no one will ask:

Where is Sardar in this gathering?

.

But I will come here again.

I will speak from the lips of children,

Sing from the tongues of birds.

When the seeds laugh inside the earth

And the shoots of their fingers

Stir the folds of the soil.

I, in every leaf, in every bud,

Will open my eyes again,

Will neigh the dewdrops 

By taking them into my green palms.

I will become the colour of henna, the melody of the ghazal,

The style of poetry.

Like the cheek of a new bride,

I will stream [as light] through every veil;

When the winter wind will bring

Autumn in its skirt,

From my dry leaves

Will come the sound of laughter.

All the golden rivers of the earth,

All the blue lakes of the heavens 

Will be filled with my existence 

And the whole world will see 

That every story is my story, 

That every lover here is a Sardar

That every beloved a Sultana.

.

I am a fleeting moment

In the magic domicile of Time;

I am a trembling drop

Which keeps travelling

From the flask of the Past

Into the cup of the Future.

I sleep and I awake.

And awakening, I go to sleep again.

I am again centuries old;

I become immortal in my death.

._

From:  Ek k̲h̲vāb aur (One More Dream), 1965. pp. 100 – 103

Merā safar is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970