Another recent poem originally written by me in Urdu :
Yeh raaz poshida hai.
Tum ek zaayka thi(n), ek maheen khushboo
ya ek thandi raatke khwaab mein
mehsoos honewali surajki kiran.
Tum shayad zehenke dasht mein
ghoomti rehti hoor thi(n), ya phir
jo lamhe haathse sarka gaye
unka bezubaan zakhira.
Yeh bhi mumkeen hai,
tum ek bhuli, bisri khwahish thi(n),
voh hasrat jisne
benaamiki chaadar audhkar
apni kashish baa-khoobi banaye rakhkhi.
Shayad mautki aakhri chamak
tumhen benaquaab karde-
baharhal,
yeh raaz poshida hai.
(c) Max Babi
Transcreated in English :
This mystery remains concealed.
You were perhaps a floating fragrance,
a very fine aroma
or may be the playful sunray
that can be felt only in a winternight's dream.
You were perhaps the angelic beauty
that roams in the forests of one's psyche
or perhaps a heap of moments
that slipped off one's grip.
It's also possible,
you were a forgotten, erased desire-
even that longing
that managed to drape anonymity
and yet keep its attraction intact
dextrously.
Perhaps the final sparkle of death
may unmask you,
nevertheless,
this mystery remains concealed.
(c) Max Babi
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Comments: 13
Thanks for good poetic expression!
I liked the way this poem uses language as a kind of magic, Max, conjuring up possibility and negating it simultaneity. Extremely sophisticated play of image and its dissolution: I only wish I could read it in the original Urdu.
Brilliant work, my dear friend. I can't say I expect any less from you now.
read it aloud as I imagined it might sound. I wafted
inside the mystique and felt its presence in everything,
everywhere, the spiritual stirring that impassions all so
majestically when we stop to listen carefuly to its evocations
wafting through the everpresent, evermissing,
evervoicing, eversilencing teases to be noticed, as in this
most gorgeous poem!
Beautifully description of that evasive desire or even love that is so fleeting and yet so potent that it remains within quite unforgettable.
A dream with substance that has not revealed its substance...yet
Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that beautiful? Like the others here, I imagined how it would sound in Urdu if I could read Urdu ... and in fact, I read it aloud in Urdu just to get the rhythm of it ... thanks for continuing to open my eyes to these poets.
Last year I used to bring other poets writing in Urdu, and present my 'transcreated ' English versions here. Someone warned me of copyright hassles, and if you have noticed, now I post nearly all poems written by me in Urdu to avoid these hassles.
It has been a blessing, because by now I have mastered the technique of being what my good friend Geoffrey Jackson calls me, 'Janus-faced' since I face East and West both with equal ease.
Thanks for taking such a deep interest in my activities,
Warmth
Max
Hi Zaru,
Theek hi kaha hai... well said.
Mysteries should remain concealed.
hugz
Max