Saqib Raza
Poet:
Faiz
Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984)
Translation:
Naomi
Lazard
Before you came things were just what they were:
the road
precisely a road, the horizon fixed,
the limit
of what could be seen,
a glass
of wine no more than a glass of wine.
With you
the world took on the spectrum
radiating
from my heart: your eyes gold
as they
open to me, slate the colour
that
falls each time I lose all hope.
With your
advent roses burst into flame:
you were
the artist of dried-up leaves, sorceress
who
flicked her wrist to change dust into soot.
You
lacquered the night black.
As for
the sky, the road, the cup of wine:
one was
my tear-drenched shirt,
the other
an aching nerve,
the third
a mirror that never reflected the same thing.
Now you
are here again - stay with me.
This time
things will fall into place;
the road
can be the road,
the sky
nothing but the sky;
the glass
of wine, as it should be, the glass of wine.