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

Ham dahr ke is virāne / Whatever we see in this wasteland

Whatever we see in this wasteland of time,

We speak in the language of tears, we signal in our sighs.

.

What do you know?—What do you know,

O hairlock! How much we embellish you in our thoughts night and day! 

.

O enormous wave, strike those few who are still on the shore looking at the storm;

Strike them lightly, just a few times.

.

O Jazbi, who knows when we will be rid of this evil?

Who knows when that day will come for which I will tolerate anything.

.
            1943

.

From:  Firozān̲ (Resplendent Things). ʻAlīgaṛh: Anjuman Taraqqī-yi Urdū (Hind), 1960. p. 103

             

Whatever we see in this wasteland of time,

We speak in the language of tears, we signal in our sighs.

.

What do you know?—What do you know,

O hairlock! How much we embellish you in our thoughts night and day! 

.

O enormous wave, strike those few who are still on the shore looking at the storm;

Strike them lightly, just a few times.

.

O Jazbi, who knows when we will be rid of this evil?

Who knows when that day will come for which I will tolerate anything.

.
            1943

.

From:  Firozān̲ (Resplendent Things). ʻAlīgaṛh: Anjuman Taraqqī-yi Urdū (Hind), 1960. p. 103