"You" and "The Rain's Colors"

by Saltanat Qaiser, trans. Talat Afroze

You

You are not a moment in time
That can be shared
Or a regal garment
That can be changed
Nor are you a season
That is awaited
Though perhaps you are a caged bird
That may still become free

 

آزاد  نظم  : تم

تم  کوئی  سمَے  تو  نہیں
جسے  بانٹ  لیا  جائے
یا  کوئی  پوشاک 
جسے  بدل  لیا  جائے
تم  موسم  بھی  نہیں
جس  کا  انتظار  کیا  جائے
شاید  تم  ایک  پرندہ  ہو
جسے  آزاد  کیا  جا  سکتا  ہے  ۔  ۔  ۔

 

 

The Rain's Colors

Have you seen the colors of the rain
After the rain has passed?
 
On the branches and on the leaves?
On the walls of the courtyard and the doors opening onto it?
In the shining eyes touched by raindrops?
 
The rain has left behind seven colors
Within the sky,
And my window reflects a part of the sky,
Though without any of those colors. 

 

آزاد  نظم  :   بارش  کے  رنگ

بارش  کے  بعد
دیکھے  ہیں  کیا   تم   نے
بارش   کے    رنگ ؟ ۔  ۔  ۔
 
درختوں  کی  شاخوں  اور  پتّوں  پر
آنگن  کی   دیوارو ں  ا ور   دروازوں    پر   اور
بوُ ندوں  کو  چھوُ تی   روشن  آنکھوں  میں ؟ ۔ ۔ ۔
 
آسمان    پر    بھی   سات    رنگ 
چھوڑ   گئی    ہے   بارش 
میری  کھڑکی   میں 
آسمان  کا    ایک    ٹُکڑا    تو    ہے
مگر   کوئی    رنگ    نہیں  ۔  ۔  ۔

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Saltanat Qaiser was born in Lahore, Punjab province, Pakistan. She completed her Master of Arts in Urdu Literature and Language degree at University of the Punjab, Lahore. Her first collection of Urdu ghazals was titled “Ik Chiragh Behta hua” (The Flowing Lamp) and was published in 1997 from Lahore, Pakistan. She is inspired by the poetry of classical Urdu poets Mirza Asadullah Ghalib, Meer Taqi Meer, contemporary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz, classical Punjabi poet Bulleh Shah, and contemporary Punjabi poetess Amrita Pritam. The complete text of her Urdu ghazals is available free of charge on well-known Urdu websites like Rekhta and Dareechah-e-Nigarish.

Talat Afroze was born in Lahore, Pakistan (1959), graduated with a Masters degree in Biological Sciences from Quaid e Azam University, Islamabad and completed his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA before returning to Pakistan. He emigrated to Canada with his wife and children. He started writing poems in English, Punjabi, and Urdu during his college years in Lahore. He published a collection of his Punjabi and Urdu poems, songs, and some ghazals titled “Ojhal Cheezain” from Toronto in 2013. He runs a literary website (Dareechah) that showcases excerpts from modern Urdu and Punjabi poetry and has several currently active social media accounts dedicated to popularizing modern Urdu and Punjabi poetry.