Ask me not, my beloved, for the love long past
I thought your presence filled life with radiance
If I have your grief, why struggle with the world's woes?
To springtime on earth your face lends permanence,
What does the world hold, but your eyes!
If I could have you, destiny would bow low,
It was not thus, I merely wished it would be so
Other sorrows exist in the world, apart from love
Other joys too, apart from the ecstasy of union
Ask me not, my beloved, for the love long past.
Tainted sinister spells of innumerable centuries
Woven in silk, satin and brocades
Bodies sold everywhere, in lanes and bazaars
Smeared in mud, bathed in blood,
Bodies arising of the furnace of diseases,
Pus oozing from incurable sores,
My gaze returns towards these also, what is to be done
Your beauty is still alluring, but what is to be done
Other sorrows exist in the world, apart from love
Other joys too, apart from the ecstasy of union
Ask me not, my beloved, for the love long past.
(Translated by me from the original Urdu poem of Faiz Ahmed Faiz)
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem