Something caught my attention immediately, something that was bang on and that hit the nail. What happened was that while reading a poem by Sir Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a line simply described what I have always believed; I guess this is the magic of poetry, specially ‘shayari’. I have reproduced the entire poem here in English. I tried to translate it from Urdu; whatever I could is given here. That’s not my motive to make you read my translated English but the main thing is that life’s deepest philosophies can be described in a few words. In its simple Urdu words, it is equivalent to my hours of explanation about what I actually feel. The tenor of the poem is amazing and Faiz, as always, has weaved magic in this verse as well. Now let’s get to the poem but before that, two of my fave lines are given below : “Aur bhi gham hain zamaane mein muhaabat ke sivah
Rahatein aur bhi hain vasl ki rahat ke sivah”
“There are other sufferings too in this world besides the agony of love
There are other joys too, besides the joy of union”
(Vasl= Union )
There are many more wonderful lines as well but here is my translation of this entire poem:
My beloved, please do not expect that same love from me now
I used to believe that with you, my life is shining
Before the sweet agony of your love, life's miseries seem nothing
Your lovely face make springs to stay forever on earth
In your beautiful eyes, lies my entire universe
My fate would be humbled if I were to get you
But all this was just a wish of mine, nothing in reality because,
There are other sufferings too,besides the agony of love and romance
There are other joys too besides the joy of union
The dark curse of savagery is there since ages
Woven in silk and satin, this is presented in a deceptive manner
Bodies are sold all along the markets and dusty alleys
Bodies are wounded and are smeared with dust and blood
Bodies are sick with countless filthy diseases
With pus still dripping from unhealed wounds
I see and I notice all this happening around
Your beauty is still that charming but,
There are other sufferings too, besides the agony of love and romance
There are other joys too, besides the joy of union
My beloved, please do not expect that same love from me now
That’s it! We live in a society and not in isolation. No man is self sufficient and it is hence necessary for all of us to manage the society and keep it free of pain and agony as much as we can. Love and romance have their own place. But my point is that we need to become a bit more sensitive towards our social responsibility too.
