These poems from Sara Shagufta’s book Aankhein and translated from the original Urdu by Arshi Yaseen.
The Milestone Accompanies for Hours
At the bosom of the heaven,
The woe keeps on spinning the wheel.
The Milestone accompanies for hours,
But the journey doesn’t end anywhere.
The night is ready to meet the dawn,
But my distance is not yet over.
My children’s misfortunes
Have stained my clothes,
And the aloneness continues to lick my blood.
The straws I gather from the ridge of the suburb,
The Sun transforms them into the woes.
It’s the eyes, that caused my dreams to burn,
I remain under the sneaky watch of my own coffin.
Two-Draughts Thirst More
She awakens by the touch of the hunger,
The snapping of the boughs,
Yet two-draughts thirst more.
God offers hunger,
In how many flavours.
O’ Gardener!
That flower,
Is of my doll’s colour.
And in the sunflower,
Thou have planted my hair.
My shoes are alike the black rose,
And this white flower,
Looks like my bread’s colour.
Eyes’ Strands
I, who standing at the crossroad,
Wish to return to my curve.
He, who’s stuck in the blood,
Desires to live a bit more …
With the wall the shadow might have become one,
As the grieves are soothing in the ocean.
Thou steal the sunshine even from the setting sun,
I rather evade the little darkness of the dawn.
And the weary star of the daybreak,
When left all alone on the firmament,
I regard that moment.
Each passing day on this earth
Does sever a part of my years.
Photo by Swaminathan via Creative Commons.
