One of the greatest joys of the internet is online serendipity, when you make a fortunate discovery while looking for something entirely different. During a search for a totally unrelated item, I stumbled upon this little gem in the comments section of a website that had a strange mix of politics, DIY guides, lonely hearts clubs, game cheats, vernacular abuses and other eclectic stuff. It is a poem called ‘Burdbaari’.
Even though I take pride in my googling ability, I must confess that I have been unable to locate the webpage again to confirm the name of the poet. Probably Google cannot do a keyword search because I changed the spellings of the urdu words into more conventional ones.
Burdbaari
mitti mein ugay huve khaamosh magar khushnuma phoolon se ek kamal ne kaha,
satah-e-aab pe mera yeh dilfareb zahoor,
mere paikar ki yeh dilfareb raanaee,
is thehrey hue paani ki khilqat hai
aur yeh thehra hua paani hi,
mere husn kaa sana-khuwan bhi hai
mujhay mitti ki tamanna hai, na barsat ki justuju
mitti mein ugay huve khaamosh, magar khushnuma phool
us haseen kamal ke is izhaar-e-ehsaas-e-bezameeni par
chupke se muskura diye
aur badastoor khaamosh rahey
