O City of Lights!
Leaf by leaf
dries up this insipid, yellowing noon—
the poison of loneliness
licking walls.
Far into the horizon
rises, falls,
the fog-wave of a dull, hideous ache.
Beyond this fog lives the City of Lights!
O City of lights!
Who can tell which direction your lights choose
to shine in?
On every side is the dark fort of separation.
Everywhere falls tired
the army of desire.
Today my heart is bound in worries
O City of Lights
that my desires may be snuffed by the night-raid!
May your beloveds live long! Tell them all
Tonight, when they light their lamps,
to keep the flame high.
Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911 – 1984) was one of the most famous Pakistani poets of the Urdu language. An intellectual, an avowed Marxist, a revolutionary, Faiz was employed in the pre-partition British military and later worked as a journalist and an educationist in Pakistan.
About the translator: Shadab Zeest Hashmi’s book Baker of Tarifa won the 2011 San Diego Book Award for poetry. Her work has appeared in Poetry International, Vallum, Nimrod, The Bitter Oleander, Journal of Postcolonial Writings, The Cortland Review, South Asian Review, RHINOand other places. She has been nominated for a Pushcart prize and has taught as a writer-in-residence at San Diego State University.
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