Prayer Rug By Agha Shahid Ali In Urdu/Hindi Translation Poem by Ravi Kopra

Paanch baar namaz karney
k waqt k beech
ghar main baithi aurtaiN
subzioN ki maalaiN bana rehi hain
adrak aur sarsrati mirch ki
maalaiN patjhad ki dopehar
main sukha rehi hain

us waqt, ye duree
jo daadi dowry main laaee thee
fold hue rehti hai
ta k kahin shetaan ki nazar na lag jaaey
duree pe sonay ki laal mainarets ko.
shaamki namaaz k waqt
sub nokar garmi main bageechay main
apni carpet pe ya ghaas pe namaaz paDtay hain
aur bachay kehtay hain
haaey Allah kab hogi inki namaaz khatam.

-to be contd.





Prayer Rug
BY AGHA SHAHID ALI

Those intervals
between the day's
five calls to prayer

the women of the house
pulling thick threads
through vegetables

rosaries of ginger
of rustling peppers
in autumn drying for winter

in those intervals this rug
part of Grandma's dowry
folded

so the Devil's shadow
would not desecrate
Mecca scarlet-woven

with minarets of gold
but then the sunset
call to prayer

the servants
their straw mats unrolled
praying or in the garden

in summer on grass
the children wanting
the prayers to end

the women's foreheads
touching Abraham's
silk stone of sacrifice

black stone descended
from Heaven
the pilgrims in white circling it

this year my grandmother
also a pilgrim
in Mecca she weeps

as the stone is unveiled
she weeps holding on
to the pillars


(for Begum Zafar Ali)