Do you know?
The wind, too, can change direction
The birds might leave their nests at dawn
And forget to find their way back
...
Now that the breeze has learnt to write
She can choose to rewrite autumn as spring
To redefine spring as waiting
...
How hard it is to manage life
As hard as making you my friend
There might be a whole new story
Please get to the point
...
Kept on compromising on life
kept reciting poetry, kept blazing
I burned down with the lamps
Your arrival was only a dream
...
The flower is torn at the heart
Its fragrance befriends the breeze
Who can tell who destroyed it?
We have spent this evening under sentence
...
I am trapped in a jungle of voices
In which I cannot spread my wings
Even so, you insist that I take flight
You will not set me free
...
I say nothing anywhere, I am silent
While you, as if my lord, order me silent
The story has something to say
But its characters are silent
...
Although my feet are worn to shreds
My journey ended nowhere
Because I am incapable
I have neither a lamp nor the ability
...
Please bring a token home from each journey
Along with your worn-out feet, bring butterfly wings
I am writing the story of our companionship
If you can, please bring a noble word
...
There was a heart that burnt out: light
Light O god, O god light
Flower, perfume, stars, breeze: light
These are your names, no matter how we shape you
...
There was a time when I loved alone
Without dream or friend
There was a time when your love was untrue
When I endured such torment that
...
I once thought it easy
To seize fragrance
To capture the evenings of monsoon
While sitting at home
...
Can someone bring me my entire being?
My arms, my eyes, my face?
I am a river flowing into the wrong sea
If only someone could restore me to the desert
...
Noshi Gilani (Urdu: نوشی گیلانی ) (born in 1964 in Bahawalpur, Pakistan) is an Urdu poet of international fame and a former academic from the Bahawalpur University, Punjab, Pakistan. She is one of the leading Urdu poets in Pakistan and has successfully published five collections of poetry. In 2008, her poetry was translated into English and her poems were read in the UK, with the Poetry Translation Centre's World Poets' Tour. She hosted a tribute to folk singer Pathanay Khan, sponsored by the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA). Personal Life Noshi Gilani settled in San Francisco USA in 1995 but after her marriage to Saeed Khan she decided to move to Australia. She married Saeed Khan, an Australian-based Urdu poet on 25 October 2008 and they currectly reside in Sydney Australia. It was reported by her mother Mrs. Sarwar Gilani Sahiba, a professor of Urdu and Persian languages and literature, died in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Works The candour and frankness of her highly-charged poems is unusual for a woman writing in Urdu and she has gained a committed international audience, performing regularly at large poetry gatherings in Pakistan, Australia, Canada and the US. Unknown outside the Pakistani community, the translations here mark her introduction to an English-speaking audience. She is a member of younger generation of female poets. Her experience of living in US shows a notable impact on her significant number of poems. Living through Diaspora has increased the complexity of her poems and reinforced her sense of female identity and introduced a new revolution against restraint creative writers in Pakistani society.)
The Wind, Too, Can Change Direction
Do you know?
The wind, too, can change direction
The birds might leave their nests at dawn
And forget to find their way back
Sometimes in spring the tree branches out
Before autumn the leaves separate
Like the paths my life takes
Blown this way and that like dust
The strange smile taking shape on your lips
Says 'So, what's new?'
Of everything in the story, you are new
Do you know?
But how could you know this?
Your encampment of love and faith
Could blow away like dust
The wind, too, can change direction.
[Translated by Nukhbah Langah and Lavinia Greenlaw]
i am in great need of books and poems of Noshi Gilani. May I get it? working on new poetry. Dr. Kausar Mazhari, Asso. Professor, Dept. Of Urdu, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110025, Cell 9818718524
Academy of Letters Islamabad Pakistan requires Poems, Fictions, Short Stories and literary essays, exclusively from Pakistani writers/poets to be published in Pakistani Literature (Winter Edition) . Material written in all Pakistani Languages is accepted, but it is preferable if translated into Urdu or English as Pakistani Literature will be brought out in English and circulated all over the world. Master pieces will be got translated into other major international languages. Poems and fictions will be scrutinized and shortlisted according to the policy of Academy of Letters Pakistan. Send your best material to mshanazar@gmail.com before 30-06-2013. Muhammad Shanazar Director (Hon) Translation Bureau Academy Of Letter Islamabad Pakistan
Good poem and poetry