We Are From The Arid Areas Poem by Naseer Ahmed Nasir

We are from the arid areas
They don't know
we never leave our fields, seasons and the graveyards
Like the shrubberies
we keep on growing yields after yields
They sprinkle the newest chemicals
to exterminate us, but
to no avail
The pesticides
cannot do us any harm
Wherever we go
we take along our soil, our foliage

We are from the arid areas
They don't know,
we may be living in the cities
but our climate is enriched with
the aroma of acacia flowers
and over our heads
there remains the shade of rosewood tree, always
We are not afraid of the scorching sunlight
and the torrential rains
We are never alone or a few
the entire village stands behind us
They'll never get to know the reason
behind our tall doorways, open courtyards, long foyers
big hearts and hardened bodies
We are the trails
losing our trails into the settlements
and we are the common land by the villages
their computers cannot identify us
We are like the trees, meadows and
july clouds
and to get to our pugmarks
they'll have to carry out a census
on the entire Earth and the sky

We are from the arid areas
we do know for sure
they'll kill us in the papers
they'll drag us into the FIRs and the order-sheets
and they'll tax even our slightest and unnoticeable
movements and gestures
They'll file us one day after
our numerous visits to the offices,
police stations and the district-courts
But they don't know
we are from the arid areas
growing and flourishing is in our nature
We'll get out of their daily-diaries and
spread into every house, every alley and every town
We'll grow like the graves
out of land-filled plots
leveled for the skyscrapers! !

Original poem in Urdu by Naseer Ahmed Nasir
English translation by Kamran Awan