This poem was translated by Professor Carlo Coppola as part of the MULOSIGE Translations project. You can explore our collection of Urdu Poetry here.
Īrānī t̤ulabā ke nām . . ! / To the Iranian Students . . !
Revision: Un t̤ulabā ke nām / To Those Students
.
For those who strove/died for peace and freedom
Who are these generous ones,
The gold coins of whose blood, drop by drop,
Pours continuously
Into earth’s thirsty begging bowl?
O land of Iran! Who are these young men,
[Revision: O native land of theirs! Who are these young men?]
The extravagant ones,
The gold of whose bodies
In fully youth
Is scattered as particles into the dust vainly,
Is scattered about in every quarter?
O land of Iran! O land of Iran!
[Revision: O their native land, O their native land!]
Why have the plucked those eyes,
Their sapphires, and thrown them away laughingly?
These lips, their coral, the quicksilver, their hands—
To what use have they been put? Who now possess them?
.
O questioning stranger!
These children and youth
Are the newly-ripe pearls of that light,
The raw buds of that fire—sweet light and bitter fire—
From which has flowered in the dark night of tyranny
The garden of the dawn of revolt.
And the dawn broke in every mind, in every body—
The silver and gold of these bodies,
The sapphires and coral of those faces,
Glittering, shining—
Should any stranger want to see them,
He should come near and watch his heart’s content.
This forehead ornament belongs to the Queen of Life;
This bracelet, to the Goddess of Peace!
.
From: Dast-i ṣabā (Hand of the Wind). Dihlī: Senṭral Buk Ḍipo, 1952.pp. 68 – 71
Un t̤ulabā ke nām is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970
Who are these generous ones,
The gold coins of whose blood, drop by drop,
Pours continuously
Into earth’s thirsty begging bowl?
O land of Iran! Who are these young men,
[Revision: O native land of theirs! Who are these young men?]
The extravagant ones,
The gold of whose bodies
In fully youth
Is scattered as particles into the dust vainly,
Is scattered about in every quarter?
O land of Iran! O land of Iran!
[Revision: O their native land, O their native land!]
Why have the plucked those eyes,
Their sapphires, and thrown them away laughingly?
These lips, their coral, the quicksilver, their hands—
To what use have they been put? Who now possess them?
.
O questioning stranger!
These children and youth
Are the newly-ripe pearls of that light,
The raw buds of that fire—sweet light and bitter fire—
From which has flowered in the dark night of tyranny
The garden of the dawn of revolt.
And the dawn broke in every mind, in every body—
The silver and gold of these bodies,
The sapphires and coral of those faces,
Glittering, shining—
Should any stranger want to see them,
He should come near and watch his heart’s content.
This forehead ornament belongs to the Queen of Life;
This bracelet, to the Goddess of Peace!
.
From: Dast-i ṣabā (Hand of the Wind). Dihlī: Senṭral Buk Ḍipo, 1952.pp. 68 – 71
Un t̤ulabā ke nām is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970
This poem was significantly revised for the publication in Poems of Faiz (1971). A rumour in certain anti-Progressive literary circles suggested that the poem had been revised to make it less political, thereby helping to qualify the volume for funding as a UNESCO publication. I addressed this matter in a letter to Dr. Victor Kiernan, the translator and close friend of Faiz’s, who emphatically (and testily) replied that the revision was made to make the poem “more universal” (Undated letter to me from Edinburgh, summer, 1973).
-Professor Carlo Coppola
Leave a Reply