All I Ever Wanted By Katie Ford In Hindi/Urdu Translation Poem by Ravi Kopra

Meri Yehi Ek Khwahish Thee

[......]


meri manjhli umr main,
apni chahtaiN bataana chahti thee
lakin wo gaaib ho gayeeN,
main un ko samaj na saki
vo nuktay k tarah lagti theeN,
aur ab bahut duur ho gayi hain.

JaaDay ki raatoN main duur pahadioN pe
main campfires ki jawaala dekhti hoon
baal bbalakaaiN mohabbat main
apni pehli raat ko vo aksar vahan jaatay hain -
har peeli safed jawaala muje bataati hai
jo main pehlay se jaanti hoon aur kabool karti hoon.
Meri yehi saari chahat thee-
main baith jaaon kisi k saath jali aag k pass
aur vo chahay muje jitna main us ko chahti hoon.
Main saath saath baith kar, aag jalaana chati thee
aur tum thay vo saathi mire. Aur kya kahooN main is k siwa.

***


All I Ever Wanted
Katie Ford
for DMK

When I thought it was right to name my desires,
what I wanted of life, they seemed to turn
like bleating sheep, not to me, who could have been
a caring, if unskilled, shepherd, but to the boxed-in hills
beyond which the blue mountains sloped down
with poppies orange as crayfish all the way to the Pacific seas
in which the hulls of whales steered them
in search of a mate for whom they bellowed
in a new, highly particular song
we might call the most ardent articulation of love,
the pin at the tip of evolution,
modestly shining.
In the middle of my life
it was right to say my desires
but they went away. I couldn't even make them out,
not even as dots
now in the distance.
Yet I see the small lights
of winter campfires in the hills—
teenagers in love often go there
for their first nights—and each yellow-white glow
tells me what I can know and admit to knowing,
that all I ever wanted
was to sit by a fire with someone
who wanted me in measure the same to my wanting.
To want to make a fire with someone,
with you,
was all.