Shaam Options

[noorie]

Shaam
- Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Is tarah hai ke har ek ped koi mandir hai
koi ujda hua, benoor purana mandir
dhoondta hai jo kharaabi ke bahane kab se
chaak har baam, har ek dar ka dam-e-aakhir hai
aasmaan koi purohit hai joh har baam tale
jism par raakh male, maathe pe sindoor male
sar-nigoon baitha hai chup-chaap na jaane kab se
is tarah hai ke pas-e-pardaa koi saahir hai

jis ne aafaaq pe phailaayaa hai yun sehr ka daam
daaman-e-waqt se paivast hai yun daamna-e-shaam
ab kabhi shaam bujhegi na andhera hoga
ab kabhi raat dhalegi na savera hoga

aasmaan aas liye hai ke yeh jaadu toote
chup ki zanjeer kate, waqt ka daaman chhute
de koi shankh duhayi, koi paayal bole
koi but jaage, koi saanvli ghoonghat khole.

[noorie]

English Translation by Agha Shahid Ali from The Rebel’s Silhouette.

Evening

The trees are dark ruins of temples,
seeking excuses to tremble
since who knows when–
their roofs are cracked,
their doors lost to ancient winds.
And the sky is a priest,
saffrom marks on his forehead,
ashes smeared on his body.
He sits by the temples, worn to a shadow, not looking up.

Some terrible magician, hidden behind curtains,
has hypnotized Time
so this evening is a net
in which the twilight is caught.
Now darkness will never come–
and there will never be morning.

The sky waits for this spell to be broken,
for history to tear itself from this net,
for Silence to break its chains
so that a symphony of conch shells
may wake up to the statues
and a beautiful, dark goddess,
her anklets echoing, may unveil herself.