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

Nayā amrit / New Nectar

In a shop medicines are arranged on the shelves;

A weak frail man is standing

In the crowd of patients;

He’s reading each and every letter

Written on a blue hunch-backed bottle.

But “P-o-i-s-o-n” is written on it.

What is this man suffering from?

What kind of remedy is this?

.

From: Ism-i aʻẓam (Name of the Greatest [God]). ʻAlīʹgaṛh: Inḍiyan Buk Hāʻūs, 1965. p. 76

             

In a shop medicines are arranged on the shelves;

A weak frail man is standing

In the crowd of patients;

He’s reading each and every letter

Written on a blue hunch-backed bottle.

But “P-o-i-s-o-n” is written on it.

What is this man suffering from?

What kind of remedy is this?

.

From: Ism-i aʻẓam (Name of the Greatest [God]). ʻAlīʹgaṛh: Inḍiyan Buk Hāʻūs, 1965. p. 76