A Few Favored Moments – An Independent Translation Of Yasmeen Khan’s Poem Chand Mehrbaan Sa'Atein(Urdu) Poem by Akhtar Jawad

The lonely silence like the queen of night,
Ruling outside dark but inside a light,
With a few candles of the moments lost,
Favored moments that twinkle in the frost,
Inside closed eyelids a rainbow of phosphene,
Evolving in rings like painful phosphine,
Still their arms in aroma’s arms,
The floor of heart with dancing charms,
Why you wrote a love story on the sand,
Alas! Could you stop the fingers and the hand!
Why you forget the tides and waves,
Love stories buried in the ocean’s graves,
Leave behind on the shoulders of breeze,
Memories of the past violently squeeze!

(Phosephene- -A luminous image produced by mechanical stimulation of the retina, as by pressure applied to the eyeball by the finger when the lid is closed.
Phosphine- -Chemical Formula PH3, a poisonous gas that evolves in the shape of rings, a compound of Phosphorus and Hydrogen.)

Original Poem
Chand Mehrbaan Sa'Atein(Urdu) - Poem by Yasmeen Khan
khamoshi raat ki raani ki manind
undhere peh raaj karti hey
kuch guzrey hooey lamhaey
chand mehrban sa’atein
band aankhon ke saamne
khushboo ki bahon mein bhaien dale
mehfel e dil mein raqsan hein

sarshari key who pal
waqt ki unglion ney sab rait peh likhey
tund lehron key haath mitate chalei gaey
hawwaen chalti raheen,
titlion key par bhikartei rahey
daastanein janam laitee raheen
dum tortee gaien
par yaadon key diye hawaon key dosh peh
larzte rehe
aur…..hamesha lo detey rahey