This poem was translated by Professor Carlo Coppola as part of the MULOSIGE Translations project. You can explore our collection of Urdu Poetry here.
Intiqām / Revenge
Her face, the mole on her cheek, I don’t recall
I remember a bedroom
A naked body beside a fireplace,
A carpet on the floor, on the carpet a bed
Metal and stone images in the corner of the wall
All a laugh!
Embers in the fireplace spitting their fury
Against the inert images!
The shadows on the high white walls
A memory of western rulers
Whose swords laid placed here
The foundation stone of Europe’s rule!
.
I don’t recall her face, the mole on her cheek
But even now I remember the naked body
Of a foreign woman, from whom
My “lips” took all-night
Revenge for the helpless owners of our homeland
Only that naked body do I recall!
.
From: Māvarā (Beyond). Lāhaur: Maktabah-yi Urdū, [1940]. pp. 115 – 16
Her face, the mole on her cheek, I don’t recall
I remember a bedroom
A naked body beside a fireplace,
A carpet on the floor, on the carpet a bed
Metal and stone images in the corner of the wall
All a laugh!
Embers in the fireplace spitting their fury
Against the inert images!
The shadows on the high white walls
A memory of western rulers
Whose swords laid placed here
The foundation stone of Europe’s rule!
.
I don’t recall her face, the mole on her cheek
But even now I remember the naked body
Of a foreign woman, from whom
My “lips” took all-night
Revenge for the helpless owners of our homeland
Only that naked body do I recall!
.
From: Māvarā (Beyond). Lāhaur: Maktabah-yi Urdū, [1940]. pp. 115 – 16
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