Speak by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, a poem for our time

Speak by Faiz Ahmad Faiz loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch Speak, while your lips are still free. Speak, while your tongue remains yours. Speak, while you're still standing upright. Speak, while your spirit has force. See how, in the bright-sparking forge, cunning flames set dull ingots aglow as the padlocks release their clenched grip on the severed chains hissing below. 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. Ebb Tide by Michael R. Burch after Goethe Ebb tide. The sea is wide. In the depths dark things abide. Hush, pale child. Never fear. None as dark as men, my dear. Ebb tide. The sea is wide. In the depths dark creatures glide. Hush, now father. Never fear. Men are nothing where you are. Moonflower by Michael R. Burch after Robert Hayden Marveling, we at last beheld the achieved flower— both awed and repelled by its alienness, its moonlit petals, its cloying fragrance, its transcendence, its shimmering and wavering intimations of mortality... How could I understand? by Michael R. Burch for the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb blasts How could I understand that light might be painful? That sight might be crossed? How could I understand the cost of my ignorance, or the sun's inflorescence? Who was there to tell me that I, too, might be one of the Lost? Sarjann by Michael R. Burch What did I ever do to make you hate me so? I was only nine years old, lonely and afraid, a small stranger in a large land. Why did you abuse me and taunt me? Even now, so many years later, the question still haunts me: what did I ever do? Why did you despise me and reject me, pushing and shoving me around when there was no one to protect me? Why did you draw a line in the bone-dry autumn dust, daring me to cross it? Did you want to see me cry? Well, if you did, you did. ... oh, leave me alone, for the sky opens wide in a land of no rain, and who are you to bring me such pain? ... Rhetorical Prayer by Michael R. Burch don't tell me man's lot's poor: i always wanted more. don't tell me Nature's cruel and red with visceral gore. i always wanted more. please, dial up ur Gaud and tell Him i don't like the crap He's selling. if He's good, He'll listen, i'm sure, this Gaud u so adore. Keywords/Tags: Faiz, translation, Speak, spirit, truth, tide, sea, dark, darkness, fear, men, father, son