![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dawn of Freedom
Apr. 7th, 2009 12:12 amDawn of Freedom
August 1947
This tattered raiment of darkness
This sputtering of dawn.
This is not the dawn that we had hoped for.
This is not the dawn we had set out for.
Through the darkness,
Towards the last station of the night stars;
Hoping to find the end of our journey,
Somewhere on the distant shore
Of the languishing sea of night,
Where our sorrow-laden ship
Would at last come home to anchor.
Through youth's warm blooded venues
As we traveled,
Many a hand tugged at our cloak
From beauty`s sleepless abode
Many arms and bodies beckoned us
But very dear was the blush of dawn,
And inviting was the glowing raiment
Of the maidens of light.
Brisk was then the desire
And suppressed entirely the thought of fatigue.
Darkness now has cleaved from light,
We hear.
The Journey has finally now ended,
We hear.
How changed are the rules
For those who have struggled painfully.
Permitted now only is the pleasure
From the delusion of attainment;
Forbidden is the persistent pain of struggle.
Alas! Though the spark of vision,
The fire raging in the mind,
The heartache, none has dimmed.
From whither came the gust of dawn's breeze,
And where did it go?
The flickering lamp on the wayside,
Does not know.
The darkness of the night has not ended yet.
The moment of liberation of hearts and minds
Has not come yet.
Keep going, for we have not come
To the end of our journey yet!
- Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Faiz Ahmed Faiz is one of the most famous modern poets in Urdu. He was a member of the Progressive Writers' Movement (featuring names like Ismat Chugtai, Sahir Ludhianavi, Sadat Hassan Manto, Amrita Pritam, Munshi Premchand, Kaifi Azmi...), and opted to stay in Pakistan after 1947. This poem, to me, will always be a poem about the Partition and the half-fulfilled promises of freedom. It's pretty much impossible to capture the grandeur of Urdu in English, but even in translation, the first few lines of the poem make me shiver.
August 1947
This tattered raiment of darkness
This sputtering of dawn.
This is not the dawn that we had hoped for.
This is not the dawn we had set out for.
Through the darkness,
Towards the last station of the night stars;
Hoping to find the end of our journey,
Somewhere on the distant shore
Of the languishing sea of night,
Where our sorrow-laden ship
Would at last come home to anchor.
Through youth's warm blooded venues
As we traveled,
Many a hand tugged at our cloak
From beauty`s sleepless abode
Many arms and bodies beckoned us
But very dear was the blush of dawn,
And inviting was the glowing raiment
Of the maidens of light.
Brisk was then the desire
And suppressed entirely the thought of fatigue.
Darkness now has cleaved from light,
We hear.
The Journey has finally now ended,
We hear.
How changed are the rules
For those who have struggled painfully.
Permitted now only is the pleasure
From the delusion of attainment;
Forbidden is the persistent pain of struggle.
Alas! Though the spark of vision,
The fire raging in the mind,
The heartache, none has dimmed.
From whither came the gust of dawn's breeze,
And where did it go?
The flickering lamp on the wayside,
Does not know.
The darkness of the night has not ended yet.
The moment of liberation of hearts and minds
Has not come yet.
Keep going, for we have not come
To the end of our journey yet!
- Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Faiz Ahmed Faiz is one of the most famous modern poets in Urdu. He was a member of the Progressive Writers' Movement (featuring names like Ismat Chugtai, Sahir Ludhianavi, Sadat Hassan Manto, Amrita Pritam, Munshi Premchand, Kaifi Azmi...), and opted to stay in Pakistan after 1947. This poem, to me, will always be a poem about the Partition and the half-fulfilled promises of freedom. It's pretty much impossible to capture the grandeur of Urdu in English, but even in translation, the first few lines of the poem make me shiver.
