Ghazal - Gulzar
An old season has returned; a memory laden wind as well.
This doesn't happen too often; that she is longing as well.
In memory's rain when the eyelids begin to get wet, This sunk heart's disgrace smells fragrant as well.
Every face appears as two in this flooded mirror of mine. On every journey her fluid shadow follows me as well.
The journey towards silence is silent as well. I hear her words again; I speak again as well.
Translated from the Hindustani*
* I have taken liberties with my translation of this (much more sombre) ghazal in order to make it fit my current mood of longing. Listen to it sung by Jagjit Singh here. Also this is a translation of Gulzar's (I love the man's voice as well) preface to the singing.
Translations
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Ghazal - Kafi Azmi
The world that I desperately seek isn’t here to be found.
Out here a new earth and a new sky aren’t to be found.
And even when I do manage to find a new earth and sky, No mortal who might be living between them is to be found.
I have been standing here, amidst this dense forest of faces, But the glance that I desire to meet is nowhere to be found.
The arrow that went clean through my heart has been unearthed. But on it, O the hands that pulled the bow string aren’t to be found.
Why worry about the existence or non existence of God When my footprints by my own feet aren’t be found?
There is my village, and there are its wood stoves. Coals flicker but their smoke is not to be found!
Translated from the Urdu. Also listen to a version of this ghazal
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Ghazal - Faiz Ahmed Faiz
We shall, perhaps, learn to see this world clearly again.
We shall, perhaps, free ourselves from its illusions again.
At the border constant patrols, and in the forest barbed wire. Where will the crazed lover take his desperate pain again?
The road to her kindness is marked with our blood stains. This time, perhaps, we shall not default on her loans again.
Either we abandon this city of fear, Faiz, or forsake life forever. To not die but to live, is a conclusion we have come to again.
Translated from the Urdu. Also see Nayyara Noor sing this ghazal here.
Translations
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