It Was Like This: You Were Happy By Jane Hirschfield. A Hindi/Urdu Translation Poem by Ravi Kopra

ye is tarha tha:
tum khush thay, fir udaas thay,
fir khush thay, fir nahin thay.
aisay hi sub hota raha.

tum be-kasoor thay ya doshi thay
kaarvaee hue ya na huee tum par.
kabhi tum boltay thay, kabhi chup-chap thay.
aksar chup rehtay thay - aakhar tum kya keh saktay thay?
ab lagbag aakhri waqt aa gaya hai.

ek dewaanay ki tarha, tumhari zindgi ab jhuk kar
tumhari zindgi ko chummay deti hai.
maufi denay k liyay nahin -
tum dono beech, maufi ki koee baat nahin -
lakin ek baker ki jhapki ki tarah
us lehmay main jab bread badal kar pukee ho jaati hai.
khaaeN gay is ko ab koee aur log hi.

-to be continued



It was like this:

you were happy, then you were sad,

then happy again, then not.

It went on.

You were innocent or you were guilty.

Actions were taken, or not.

At times you spoke, at other times you were silent.

Mostly, it seems you were silent—what could you say?

Now it is almost over.

Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life.

It does this not in forgiveness—

between you, there is nothing to forgive—

but with the simple nod of a baker at the moment

he sees the bread is finished with transformation.

Eating, too, is a thing now only for others.

It doesn't matter what they will make of you

or your days: they will be wrong,

they will miss the wrong woman, miss the wrong man,

all the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention.

Your story was this: you were happy, then you were sad,

you slept, you awakened.

Sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.

Jane Hirschfield