Faiz Ahmed Faiz Translations
These are English translations of Urdu poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, whose name is also frequently spelled Faiz Ahmad Faiz.
Last Night
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
translation by Michael R. Burch
Last night, your memory stole into my heart ...
as spring sweeps uninvited through barren gardens,
as morning breezes revive dormant deserts,
as a patient suddenly feels better, for no apparent reason.
The Deserts of Solitude
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
translation by Michael R. Burch
In the wastelands of solitude, my love,
the echoes of your voice quiver,
the mirages of your lips waver.
In the deserts of alienation,
out of the expanses of distance and isolation's debris
the fragrant jasmines and roses of your presence delicately blossom.
Now from somewhere nearby,
the warmth of your breath rises,
smoldering forth an exotic perfume: gently, languorously.
Now far-off, across the distant horizon,
drop by shimmering drop,
fall the glistening dews of your beguiling glances.
With such tenderness and affection—oh my love!—
your memory has touched my heart's cheek so that it now seems
the sun of separation has set; the night of blessed union has arrived.
Tonight
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
translation by Michael R. Burch
Do not strike the melancholy chord tonight! Days smoldering
with pain in the end produce only listless ashes ...
and who the hell knows what the future may bring?
Last night’s long lost, tomorrow's horizon’s a wavering mirage.
And how can we know if we’ll see another dawn?
Life is nothing, unless together we make it ring!
Tonight we are love gods! Sing!
Do not strike the melancholy chord tonight!
Don’t harp constantly on human suffering!
Stop complaining; let Fate conduct her song!
Give no thought to the future, seize now, this precious thing!
Shed no more tears for temperate seasons departed!
All sighs of the brokenhearted soon weakly dissipate ... stop dithering!
Oh, do not strike the same flat chord again! Sing!
Wasted
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
loose translation by Michael R. Burch
You have noticed her forehead, her cheeks, her lips...
In whose imagination I have lost everything.
Countless
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
loose translation by Michael R. Burch
I recounted the world's countless griefs
by recounting your image countless times.
Speak, in this last brief hour,
before the bold tongue lies dead.
Speak, while the truth can be spoken.
Say what must yet be said.
Keywords/Tags: Urdu, love poems, night, memory, heart, spring, desert, voice, sun, song, grief, truth
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