Raza Rumi
Aggrieved by the recent sinister, senseless violence and brutal murders in Karachi, this is my feeble attempt at poetic expression.
I have also trans-created this Urdu poem below titled Adrift.
Jal gaya – tha ik roshniyon ka shaher
Jal gaya – tha ik roshniyon ka shaher
Bujh gaye kitnay jaltay aur adh-jalay chiragh
Magar kotwaal-i-shaher ne mur kar na dekhaJism kis ka, khoon kahan aur maut kaisee?
Yeh qatl na tha dosto
Yeh qatl hai ik ehad ka
Yeh nohaa hai insaniyat kaInsaniyat ka khatma karnay walay jantay nahee
Insaan marta hai – bhujta naheeAhle-hawas aur ahle-dil
Huay sab ke sab, aseer-i-shab-i-siyahaur ham
roshniyon ke muntazir
bhujtey jugnoo-on ko dhoondtay
thakay haray
gharon ka rasta bhool gaye
And here is a version trans-created in English
Adrift
Once a city of lights, stands ruined
Lamps – lit and half-lit, all extinguished
And the guardians of the city, unmovedWhich body, what blood and whose death?
This was not a murder my friends
This was the murder of our times
A prolonged elegy of humanityThose hell-bent on erasing humanity, are, unaware
Man dies but cannot be lostThe bleeding hearts and the hearts with no remorse
All trapped in the darkness of the nightAnd we the forlorn
Wait for the light
Attempting to seek dying fireflies
Tired, exhausted
Lost on our way home!
Raza Rumi blogs at Jahane Rumi where this was first published.
Why Faraz is silent?
The recent appearance of Faraz was in an AC Ad in which he’s sitting on a chair and smiling.
I am grateful to Adil Bhai for putting up these amateur lines here…
thanks Naveed for the comment.
[quote post=”706″]
Pal of gloom has descended in not only Karachi but whole country after what MQM thugs did on 12th May.[/quote]
These lines were written after the event on May 14 as the violence still hounded the city and a friend was brutally murdered in Islamabad!
Expat – I think you may have watched his interview with Hamid Mir in which Ahmed Faraz was hammered by insinuation by a very crass Bushra Rehman as he stood accused of complicity; of association with the National Book Foundation; the lady not accepting pleas by Ahmed Faraz that there is a difference between the “state” and “army ruler”. To her it is one and the same thing. It was a sad sight for an institution like Ahmed Faraz embarrased by the lady PML Q MNA. That people like Kishwer Naheed and Ahmed Faraz are at the receiving end of the MNAs insinuations is part of the current crisis that civil society is experiencing in Pakistan, the rulers unfazed by ground realities & their audacity to disrepect public figures like Ahmed Faraz who spent years in exile during dark days of Zia ul Haq
Raza – Poignant reminder of our predicament. Our hearts and minds are maflog in the words of Faiz par hum phir bhee jeeyay jatain hain. I do hope that his prophetic words about zulm kee miyad kay din thoray hain see the light of day. AAJ TV will air the interview by the President and I am sure he will maintain his innocence and demand support of his second terms and blissfully unaware of the rapid decline in his popularity since May 12 when he became party to the murder of a city that continues to show resilience
[It is not a coincidence that he grants interviews to channels that are attacked; his interview with Kamran Khan appeared within 24-hours of the attack at GEO office in Islamabad and AAJ TV office in Karachi saw a genocide on May 12. For this favor, the hapless nation is thank ful Mr. President]
The support Karachi has received from the entire nation is unprecedent and maybe there is hope in all this & we have our media to be thankful to show the events in Karachi live for all to see so that people feigning ignorance and innocence are clearly exposed
I encourage everyone to read Ayaz Amir on the Dawn website, his Friday article mourns the death of our collective conscience
Pal of gloom has descended in not only Karachi but whole country after what MQM thugs did on 12th May.
MQM had become spoiled by its upper hand in Karachi which was not because of love from Karachiites but from fear of them. They had instilled fear into the hearts of people by their heavy handed tactics which included blackmailing, extortion of money, torture and murder.
Altaf, in the past, had been successful in brow beating print media. Jang, which alway sides with the rising sun,succumbed to his pressure and you would have noticed that its columnists like Nazir Naji, Ikram Sehgal, Irshad Ahmed Haqqani never mention terrorist activities of this paert. Many a times they shower praises on MQM Don for his ‘organisational capabilities’ and ‘making inroads into the elite’ etc.
The daily DAWN resisted not only MQM blackmail but also threats from the government.
I hope MQM learns lesson and diarm itself of armed wing and learn to live with others in spririt of tolerance. They can not go on with their terrorist activities. Altaf should realise that the days are gone when he could prssurise a newspaper and force them to follow their line. Today is an era of electronic media. Live footage can not be belied.
Ahmed Faraz recently recited one verse of his poem on TV which is as follows.
Yeh core commander hain
Yeh Chor commander hain
Has anybody heard complete poem and can anybody share this complete poem here?