Siyaasi Leader ke naam
by
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Saal ha saal, yeh beaasraa, jakde hue haath
Raat ke sakht-o-siyaa seene mein paiwast rahe,
Jis taraah tinka samunder se ho sargarm-e-satez,
Jis taraah titli kushaar pe yalgaar kare.
Aur ab raat ke sangin-o-siyaa seene mein
Itne ghao hain, ke jis simt nazar jaati hain
Jaa-ba-jaa noor ne ek jaal-sa bun rakhkha hain.
Door se subh ki dhadkan ki sadaa aati hain.
Tera sarmaaya, teri aas yehi haath to hai
Aur kuch hai bhi tere paas? Yehi haath to hai
Tujhko manzoor nahin ghalba-e-zulmat, lekin
Tujhko manzoor hai yeh haath qalam ho jaayein
Aur mashriq ki kameen-gah mein dhadaktaa hua din
Raat ki aahani maiyyat ke tale dab jaaye!
To a Political Leader
Translated by
Mustansir Dalvi
Year after year, these pathetic, repressed hands
remain embedded in the inky heart of night,
like the growing ardor of a straw facing off the sea,
like a butterfly screaming defiance at a mountain.
And now,
so many wounds lie inflicted in night’s black marble breast
that everywhere the gaze wanders it is ensnared
by a gleam that has woven a kind of web.
From afar, the booming premonition of dawn’s heart beat.
Your worldly goods, your desires are these very hands
What else do you have? Only these hands.
You will not accept the dark dive into nightfall
yet live in denial as these hands are hacked off;
while waylaid by the east, the pounding dawn lies
entombed beneath the iron carcass of night!