Nothing Else We Have Here Poem by Muhammad Shanazar

Nothing else we have here,
Our sojourn was here for nothing,
We came here to pick some wild fruit,
To etch names on the crust of trees,
To drink the water of fountains
With the bowl of hands,
To bolster backs
Against the stones to have rest,
Our sojourn was here for nothing.

By God! We did not know
This region was the zone of fate,
Else we might not have moved to here,
Or might have returned before the eve encroached.

Nothing else we have here,
We are staying here without any aim,
For a few moments, and that too
Because the grain-loaded camels became slothful,
Else nothing was to do here,
And nothing else we have here.

We could stay anywhere else,
In the depth or there on the top.
Anywhere!
We neither intended to fix up the tents,
Nor deployed guards,
We had neither custodians nor spouses,
Nor maids nor poets to sing panegyrics.
Our all assets consist of
Grain loaded on the sluggish camels,
Books in the trunks
And portraits sketched with hands,
That we picked precociously
From the native library while we departed,
Nothing else we have here.

We only will pass here a chunk of night,
And then
Will leave the place for onward journey,
Having eaten thick loaves
By dipping them in the curry of mutton,
Nothing else we have here.

Why are you giving us so much importance?
Why have you brought here
These so many combatants in armours?
Why are you heading with too cautious tread?
We have offered you the camels loaded with grain,
And loyal dogs too,
And you might have these all in possession,
Nothing else we have here.

We shall move on ahead
But we all do know, you are bent upon
To snatch the trunks packed with books,
And portraits sketched with hands
For you know well,
If we become successful in making secure,
These books and portraits,
Sometime whenever we return, we shall occupy
The Houses of your untaught sovereigns.

Written by Muhammad Izhar ul Haq
Translated by Muhammad Shanazar