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Faiz translations (by Rehan)
THIS PLACE IS NOT FOR SINGLE MEN
If the path of memory on which you’ve been walking
For an age at the same pace comes to an end
Walk on a few steps further till you reach
the crossroads of the wastes of negligence
Beyond which there is neither an I nor a you
and the field of vision holds its breath for who knows when
You might retreat, transcend, or turn around to look
Though the eyes know this is all a lie
If ever again we do see eye to eye
Some other path will branch out from that point on
and hand in hand we will begin the journey
In the shadows of your tresses to the movement of your arms
The other thing is also a sorcery for the heart knows
There is no turning no desert no spell
Veiled in which my months can pass
if the path of life runs with your thoughts - All is good
If you do not turn round to look behind it doesn’t matter
A Wish
I don’t believe in miracles but I wish
That when death takes me from the midst of this world
It permit me just the once
to return from the grave
To call at your door and if you answer
to be of solace to you if you need someone to console your grief
and if you don’t to return once more to oblivion
…………………………………………………….
No it is not that the allure of the sun’s stilettos
That bedazzle the eyes
Or that the wiles of the dawn-breeze-route-beguiling gait
That roast the heart when in it reflected
Can no longer emerge in the elegance of another
Nor is it that beauty and love and desire
The rituals of Courtly Romance, the tradition of Chivalry
Have no role to play to play at the midnight masquerades
But that we live in this perpetual city you and I
Uninvited to the carousels
Nor hearing the horn-blow portending doomsday
What sempiternal taverns do this Muse and I haunt
In which none can hear the tumult of the revellers
Let alone catch the glass-heart shatter
SO MANY OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME
Before you came things were just as they were
The sky: horizon-fixed, the road precisely road
Just the edge of that which could be seen from here
A glass of wine, contained the wine that flowed
You jerked your wrist and lacquered black the night from day
It made me feel electrifying aftershocks!
Finding your threshold out I walked away
knowing that you dwelt among the crags and rocks
Now that you are here again – Stay close to me
This time things will certainly fall into line
The road can be a road again – The sky the sky
A glass of wine a glass of wine, a glass of wine …
Tear-filled for me – When you’re in sorrow drowned
There will be freedom for we’re freedom bound
Translator: Rehan Qayoom
June 25th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
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