This poem was translated by Professor Carlo Coppola as part of the MULOSIGE Translations project. You can explore our collection of Urdu Poetry here.
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
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