Poem: O Wise Men !

By: Shahnaz Nabi

O WISE MEN!


Throwing your girl child
From the peaks of high mountains
Was called barbaric
O wise men!

The cultured nations tried to change
“ definition” as well as “history”
But since the advent of time
The ‘ root of all evils’
Was not taken as a ‘boon’
Savage tribes still trample them
As if they are lands
Cut them down as harvest
Cover them considering fathomless wells
A delicacy to be served on the dining table
Almighty’s first gift to Adam
Whom he lost in a stake of dice.

Before paradise becomes her weakness
And her pyre is prepared
With the first symbol of civilization
O wise men
Push her down
From the peaks of huge mountain.


Self translted : SHAHNAZ NABI

Poem: Renunciation

By: Shahnaz Nabi

RENUNCIATION

Who knows which stage of night it was
The body fidgeting in slumber
Felt the soft lap of the bed thorny
The sky was brimming with stars
But darkness rummaged the veins
Windows were wide apart
But eyes bulged out
Due to suffocation
Some scenes bit the gaze
Relations cracked one by one
The walls of the palace called aloud
In state of illusion
Or streams of consciousness
I came out
Never returned
Who knows how is Kapilavastu
These days.

Self Translted : SHAHNAZ NABI

Poem: Is There Anybody

By: Shahnaz Nabi

IS THERE ANYBODY

Is there anybody
With whom I shall exchange my eyes
But those
Who haven’t seen
Folding of flying arms
Getting feathers trimmed
Who never witnessed
Uprooting of green trees in spring
Dense forests plundered
Death of youthful city
Books turning to ashes
Toys in dust.


Self Translated by:
Dr. Shahnaz Nabi

Poem: Disagreement

By: Shahnaz Nabi

Disagreement

Strangely barren lands
Layers were scraped out one by one
But they kept quiet
Neither embraced a single seed
Nor delivered a sprout
Vegetation free soil
Had no communication with over-casting clouds
Lightning wondered
No terror in eyes
The arms that bent the skies
Hesitate to name the revolt “self realization”
They – faithful to a mandate
Are unaware of the weathers
Taking turns beneath the layers
Fields—negating self are about to repudiate them too.

Self translated from Urdu: Shahnaz Nabi

Poem: Somebody Should Come

By: Shahnaz Nabi

Somebody Should Come

Somebody should come
And take away
Your footprints scattered on the stairs
Each and every drop of flashing echo
Your voice created
Every gust of your wild sweat
Every draught of the ewer of intoxication
A few scratches from my glass
Moments strewn on the calendar
The width of moments
The agony of centuries
Somebody should come
And take away everything
Which witnesses
Your absence
And pick up the needles
You left on my eyes purposely
Somebody should come and drag me out of your
enchantment

Self Translated by : Shahnaz Nabi

Poem: Soliloquy

By: Shahnaz Nabi

Soliloquy

‘ I am fatigued’
The words catch me unaware
Mortified
No one must overhear
‘I am fatigued’.

‘ Who told you to glance askance at the terrace
With a bitter smile in your eyes
Who told you to cast off the shade
Wrap your self in the sun
Did they tell you
To test the mettle of the thorny briers
Stain the soil with blood from the torn feet
Till the paths glow like lamps.


Was you told to hold your head high
And speak the truth
Fill your mind to the brim with laughter
Weep till your heart breaks
Test each emotion
Scan each affiliation
Weigh the pros and cons of love
Keep your gaze steady
Look the world in the face.

‘I am weary’
The sigh escapes me once again
But even if overheard, would I
Stifle my sigh
The world is more weary than I

Translated By: Krishna Sen

Poem: Companians Of Cracked Walls

By: Shahnaz Nabi

COMPANIONS OF CRACKED WALLS


Life is the name
Of scouring moss from damp courtyards
Or gathering the chipped bits of plaster
Peeling from termite- ridden walls
Morning dawns with the noise of utensils
Rest of the day is still ahead
A day of striving to fill empty utensils
With food.

A day of beginning once again
The struggle for survival and livelihood
Of encountering in buses and trams
A skin- abrading crowd.
Life is trying to walk steadily
Upon uneven paths
Life is a constant skirmish.

Is there any difference between
The roads of the city and the paths of our dreams
Both are unrealized
Both demand from us the balance of a juggler.

My sister and I
Both within and without
Are the companions of the cracks
That occurs in the termite – ridden walls
Why is life not the name of adhering these cracks?

Translation by: Shabina Nishat Omar

Poem: A Poem For My Mother

By: Shahnaz Nabi

A POEM FOR MY MOTHER

I am not yet your age
And yet
This world is as naught in my eyes.

I see a face beyond every face
Configurations behind every dissected relationship
And I am stone, like you.
Love – betrayal
Camaraderie – treachery
For every abuser, an abused
And the abused without pity
Is “ home” another word for “security’?
At least a place in which to weep has been
Tossed out to me by fate.

So often you said
The long nights come not to bring sleep
The worth of the day lies hidden in the
Fleeting dreams
The season haste away, one by one,
But their silent foot fall
Have we listened to them even till today?

I am not yet your age
And yet
The weight of your experience
Wears me down.
I yearn to perceive this world for myself
So that I can say to myself
My world is not the one my mother knew
And yet the thought comes to me
With a start
Years will go by
Before I untangle myself from the
Cord that binds me to your heart.

English translation by: PROF. KRISHNA SEN

Poem: Contradictions

By: Shanaz Nabi

Contradictions

The experience of relations are so strange
I don’t permit them to apply ointment
On my wounds
Who see my bruises naked
Those who look at my cracked mirror
With agony and compassion
I don’t let their hands grime with dust
The persons to whom I place my problems
Are not expected to solve them
Kind- hearted people like green shady trees
Are not to stolen off their shades
And cover the shame of one’s unveiling
I want my solutions from them
Who have never thought about anybody
Except one’s own self
Knit dreams on their shoulders
Who cannot grip their own days and nights
I long to entangle with breakable relations
And get free from those
Who entangle.

Self Translated from urdu: Shahnaz Nabi

Poem: Admonition

By: Shahnaz Nabi

Admonition

The effort of becoming a straight line
Look where it has brought you
Who advised you to be self- reliant
If only you had clutched at crutches before,
Before the dogs’ nostrils flared
If only you had cast your bread before them
Now suffer………..
In the guise of hospitality
These white mice usurped your granary
Slurped your wells dry.
Your monarch – a soft toy
Awaits a customer
Soldiers -plaything of whores
Religious leaders engage in fragmentation,
Palaces become the haunt of banshees,
Fields suffer famine
Your odoriferous wounds
Putrefy within bandages
Those insisting on the magic cure of incisions
Are sharpening lancet for fresh wounds
Tell those……
Who are still standing on their feet
The time has come to clutch at crutches.

Translation by: Shabina Nishat Omar