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 sāl / New Year

The thousand-year-old story,

The aged world.

What a jokester this new world is,

Wearing the shawl of the New Year,

Sarcastically saying to us all:

“I’m new.

I feel like laughing.”

.

From: Bisāt̤-i raqṣ (Dance Carpet). Ḥaidarābād, Inḍiyā: Istiqbāliyah kameṭī jashn-i Mak̲h̲dūm, 1966. p. 229

             

The thousand-year-old story,

The aged world.

What a jokester this new world is,

Wearing the shawl of the New Year,

Sarcastically saying to us all:

“I’m new.

I feel like laughing.”

.

From: Bisāt̤-i raqṣ (Dance Carpet). Ḥaidarābād, Inḍiyā: Istiqbāliyah kameṭī jashn-i Mak̲h̲dūm, 1966. p. 229