Tuesday 17 November 2009

Loneliness and two great Poets


FAIZ AHMED FAIZ (1911-1984)

Loneliness


There is someone at the door, dear heart!
Nay, there is none
Or might be a wanderer
He will go hence, plodding his weary way.
Night is done
And evaporates in thin air the starry mist.
In palaces quiver the sleeping lamps
Hanging by their chains of gold.
The solitary paths are sunk in despair
And the unfriendly dust
Has obliterated the foot prints
Fill the cups and drink to the lees
The bitter wine of loneliness.
Lock up your slumbers less doors, dear heart!
For, now no one will ever ever come here.

The above poem translated by Daud Kamal and is taken from his book “Selected Poems of Faiz in English”. On 20th November 2009 is Faiz’s 25th Death Anniversary.

ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)

Now Close the Windows

Now close the windows and hush all the fields:
If the trees must, let them silently toss;
No bird is singing now, and if there is,
Be it my loss.

It will be long ere the marshes resume,
It will be long ere the earliest bird:
So close the windows and not hear the wind,
But see all wind-stirred.

5 comments:

  1. As always when I see such posts of yours, I am compelled to try to carve out time for such literature and reflection. Thanx for the continual reminders that I am only a partial person when I deny this part of myself as so many of our societies do...

    Wow, this Frost line is amazing: "See all wind-stirred"...

    Amazing always to me, metaphors of the wind as the Spirit and as so often unseen, unoticed, gentle and by turns cataclysmic!

    And how, now to see and recognize loneliness as the common lot of reflective fellow humans, despite cell phones, face-book, twitter, meetings, festivals, etc....

    Yet IN this very recognition and saying so to sense LESS loneliness...

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  2. Listening to wind is as great as listening to one’s heart. Listening to wind is just like listening to the spirit of world, the seen and the unseen. Thanks for your comments Connie, always reflective and always stirring.

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  3. This is a new consideration on the physical level although I've always simply loved to do so...and now I will always remember the connections you have made...

    Thank you always for your balancing and unique posts.

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  4. wow.. tanhai ka poora ehsaas dela diya Faiz sahib ne

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  5. Yes the poems urdu title is TANHAI and it really captures all about it.

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