Weekend Reflection

The following is a translation of Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz’ 1974 poem Dhaka say wapsi par (On Return from Dhaka). He wrote it at the end of the civil war between East and West Pakistan that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh; lamenting that a people once so close are now divided. The poem is translated into English by the Kashmiri-American poet, Agha Shahid Ali:

On Return from Dhaka

After those many encounters, that easy intimacy, we are strangers now–

After how many meetings will we be that close again?

When will we again see a spring of unstained green?

After how many monsoons will the blood be washed from the branches?

So relentless was the end of love, so heartless –

After the nights of tenderness, the dawns were pitiless, so pitiless.

And so crushed was the heart that though it wished it found no chance –

after the entreaties, after the despair — for us to quarrel once again as old friends.

Faiz, what you’d gone to say, ready to offer everything, even your life –

those healing words remained unspoken after all else had been said.

The famous Pakistani singer, Nayarra Noor sings the poem below: