The destination is far, the streets dark,

Thorns, jungle at every turn;

Long plains of dry blood;

Blood-rain,

Heavy, stony silence

Like hailstones raining.

Impossible to travel

These streets alone;

Impossible to find the destination alone.

The blisters on one’s feet

Cannot blossom like flowers in the heart of the plain;

Impossible for this blood-rain to stop;

The hands of deep silence

Will not run out of stones;

I am alone; you are alone.

We will die in our loneliness.

I am coming.

You come too.

  15 July 1965

          With M. H. K. Qureshi

.

From: Pairāhan-i sharar (Garment of Fire), 1965. pp. 34 – 35

Tum bhī āʼo! is quoted in full in Urdu Poetry, 1935-1970