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Jal gaya – tha ik roshniyon ka shaher
Aggrieved by the recent sinister, senseless violence and brutal murders in Pakistan, this is my feeble attempt at poetic expression. I have also trans-created this Urdu poem below titled Adrift.Â
Jal gaya – tha ik roshniyon ka shaher
Bujh gaye kitnay jaltay aur adh-jalay chiragh
Magar kotwaal-i-shaher ne mur kar na dekha
Jism kis ka, khoon kahan aur maut kaisee?
Yeh qatl na tha dosto
Yeh qatl hai ik ehad ka
Yeh nohaa hai insaniyat ka
Insaniyat ka khatma karnay walay jantay nahee
Insaan marta hai - bhujta nahee
Ahle-hawas aur ahle-dil
Huay sab ke sab, aseer-i-shab-i-siyah
aur ham
roshniyon ke muntazir
bhujtey jugnoo-on ko dhoondtay
thakay haray
gharon ka rasta bhool gaye
Adrift
Once a city of lights, stands ruined
Lamps - lit and half-lit, all extinguished
And the guardians of the city, unmoved
Which body, what blood and whose death?
This was not a murder my friends
This was the murder of our times
A prolonged elegy of humanity
Those hell-bent on erasing humanity, are, unaware
Man dies but cannot be lost
The bleeding hearts and the hearts with no remorse
All trapped in the darkness of the night
And we the forlorn
Wait for the light
Attempting to seek dying fireflies
Tired, exhausted
Lost on our way home…
May 16th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Beautiful and so relevant to the current turmoil in Pakistan
May 16th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
did u write it?
May 17th, 2007 at 3:08 am
Indeed. Just scribbled some lines the night before while watching the idiot box..
Yeh be-hooda nazm is nacheez ki kawaish hai
thanks for asking
May 17th, 2007 at 5:44 am
…it is sad but this too shall pass…
May 17th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Dear Raza,
Nice poem and very apt to current times. Here are some lines from Sahab Qizilbash (1930-2004):
Bhuj Rahen Hain Chirag Dair-o-Haram
Dil Jalao Ke Roshni Kam Hai.
(Temple and mosque lamps are going out
Let the heart burn to eschew darkness)
Regards
Shaista