Dont ask me for the same love, my sweetheart
I thought that life was radiant because of you
Why complain of worldly woes, once in your love-affliction
Your countenance brings eternity to the youth of spring
What else is there in the world but for the beauty of your eyes
If you were mine, my destiny would surrender to me
This was not so, only my wish for it to be
There are sufferings in the world other than the suffering of love
There are pleasures other than the delight of our union
Dark, heinous spells of uncountable centuries.
Woven into rich silk and precious brocades
being sold in every corner, bodies,
covered in dirt, drenched in blood.
Bodies, burning in hot ovens of disease
Pus seeping from open, lacerating wounds.
My sight returns to this as well, I am helpless
Your beauty is heart-warming still, but I am helpless
There are sufferings in the world other than the suffering of love
There are pleasures other than the delight of our union
Dont ask me for the same love, my sweetheart!
Notes
Translation by Hamid Rahim Sheikh www.ece.utexas.edu/~sheikh/poetry/faiz
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Comments
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I find this a very moving poem, beautiful and challenging. I feel abashed and chastened, my preoccupation with how I feel somehow brought into a better perspective.
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You are right of course Nam if it is seeping than it is pus and not puss which is a cat Thank you so much sometimes it is not possible for us to keep a track of all the mistakes readers like you help us maintain the level of professionalism we are trying so hard to attain. you are right in both the mistakes and they will be fixed pronto thanks again. Thanks for reading Andrew I found acouple of ofs were missing too and fixed them. The problem in these translations occurs usually because the structure of the sentence is different in hindi/urdu and in english. sometimes if it is an exact translation it sounds strange, as I have found in soem of the Iqbal poems as well.
Edited on Feb 21, 11:01 p.m. because ''. -
Thank you Nam, your right about the word pus/puss, (it was a translation error).
There does appear to be a word missing from that line, I can't read te original, so I'm no help there. Maybe someone who can will enlighten us.
Andrew -
Whether to be fixed by the staff of Oldpoetry or if it is what is translated by Hamid Rahim Sheikh, I have found a couple of errors in this piece.
In this line: 'Puss seeping from open, lacerating wounds.' 'Puss' is the incorrect spelling it would be 'Pus' so I have learned from using the word quite often myself.
In this line: 'There are pleasures other than the delight our union' I feel at the end it is missing a word '...other than the delight 'of' our union' which is what I feel is missing. Without the 'of' I feel that line just doesn't make too much sense.
Other than those errors which I know the author can't fix or the translator for that matter, but, maybe the staff if they come around to this poem in the future (I could ticket it but then I would be doing their job for them) but regardless of those errors I found this to be better than the last piece I read by the author.
It has that homage feel to it, it weeps yet it sleeps as well (without being too cliche).
It is a good piece of written work.
Edited on Feb 21, 7:43 p.m. because ''.
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