[Reader-list] Faiz - The Kashmiri Pandit in Exile

[cashmeeri]

Faiz is one of my favourite poets and some of his best work has been produced when he was in exile. I have taken the liberty of attempting to translate one of his finest "in exile" poems. My lack of skill has forced alterations in both structure and content.
   
  In it is a transmigration of "exiles"; from his to mine.
   
   
  Faiz - The Kashmiri Pandit in Exile
   
  Hark, my heart, itinerant soul
  It has been so ordained
  Now you and I exiled again
   
  Town to town our pathways
  Our cries rending alleyways
  Seeking clues of the tidings bearer
  A question for every stranger
  What more has befallen my Land
   
  Unfamiliar and alien streets
  Our days merging into night
  Speaking to this one
  Speaking to that one
  Conversations held with no one
   
  How shall I tell you about it
  The suffocation of woeful nights
  If 'twere to come into account
  My death I would not rue
  Deliverance for a wretched state
  But how many deaths shall I die
   
   
  ............. aalok aima
  (with apologies to Faiz)
   
   
  The original by Faiz:
   
  dill-e-munn, musaafir-e-munn
   
  meray dill meray musaafir
  hua phir se hukm saadir
  ke vatan badar ho.n hum tum
  dain gali gali sadaayain
  karain rukh nagar nagar ka
  ke suraag koi paayain
  kisi yaar-e-naamaabar ka
  har ek ajanabi se poochain
  jo pataa tha apnay ghar ka
  sar-e-ku-e-naashanaayaa.N
  hamain din se raat karnaa
  kabhi iss say baat karnaa
  kabhi uss se baat karnaa
  tumhain kya kahoon ke kya hai
  shab-e-gham buri balaa hai
  hamain ye bhi tha ghanimat
  jo koi shumaar hota
  hamain kya buraa thaa marna
  agar ek baar hota
   
  Faiz Ahmed Faiz
  In exile, London 1978
   

       
---------------------------------
 Copy addresses and emails from any email account to Yahoo! Mail - quick, easy and free. Do it now...