{"id":156,"date":"2013-08-04T18:35:14","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T13:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/?p=156"},"modified":"2025-06-05T23:10:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T17:40:28","slug":"faiz-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/?p=156","title":{"rendered":"Faiz Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is now officially a summer tradition. <\/p>\n

On another hot humid sleepless night, I chanced upon an absolute gem of a poem and could not resist translating it mainly to simplify things for my own sake.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the amazing imagery in this poem by (who else !) Faiz Ahmed Faiz<\/b>. <\/p>\n

tum jo na aaye the<\/p>\n

tum jo na aaye the
\ntoh har cheez wohi thi ke jo hai
\naasmaan had-e-nazar
\nrahguzar, rahguzar
\nsheesha-e-mai, sheesha-e-mai<\/p>\n

aur ab sheesha-e-mai, rahguzar, rang-e-falak
\nrang hai dil ka mere, khoon-e-jigar hone tak<\/p>\n

champai rang kabhi, raahat-e-deedar ka rang
\nsurmai rang kabhi, saat-e-bezaar ka rang
\nzard paton ka, zas-o-zaar kaa rang
\nsurkh phoolon ka, dehekte hue gulzaar ka rang
\nzehar kaa rang, lahu rang, shab-e-taar ka rang<\/p>\n

aasman, rahguzar, sheesha-e-mai
\nkoi bheega hua daaman
\nkoi dukhti hui rag
\nkoi har lehza badaltaa hua aaina hai<\/p>\n

ab jo aaye ho to thehro
\nki koi rang, koi rut, koi shai
\nek jagah par thehre
\nphir se ik baar har ik cheez wohi ho ke jo hai
\naasmaan had-e-nazar
\nrahguzar, rahguzar
\nsheesha-e-mai, sheesha-e-mai<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

I have tried to keep my insomnia-fuelled translation close to the original and, owing as much to inability as to personal style, have eschewed clever turns of phrase, embellishments, and forced rhyming.<\/p>\n

I very nearly dropped this post because "The Rebels Silhouette" has a translation by the incomparable Agha Shahid Ali<\/a>. It may be akin to brandishing a candle at the sun, but with apologies to Shahid and other learned translators<\/a>, here goes. <\/p>\n

before you came<\/p>\n

before you came
\neverything was just what it was <\/p>\n

the sky as far as the eye could see
\nthe road just a path to somewhere
\nthe goblet just a glass of wine<\/p>\n

and now
\nthe goblet, the road, the sky
\nreflect the colours
\nof my heart’s blood
\nas it culminates in my liver<\/p>\n

the colour of champa flowers
\nthe colour of the comfort of seeing you
\nthe colour of antimony
\nthe colour of despondence
\nthe colour of autumn leaves
\nthe colour of thorns
\nthe colour of crimson flowers
\nthe colour of a rose garden in bloom
\nthe colour of poison
\nthe colour of blood
\nthe colour of the dark night<\/p>\n

the sky, the road and the goblet
\na tear-drenched hem
\na raw nerve
\na mirror of ever-changing reflections<\/p>\n

Now that you have come, stay
\nso each colour, every season, everything
\nstands still
\nand for once all things will again be just what they are ?<\/p>\n

the sky as far as the eye can see
\nthe road just a path to somewhere
\nthe goblet just a glass of wine.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According to a report in The Guardian<\/a> newspaper, ‘Rang Hai Dil Ka Mere’<\/em>, has been included in the 50 best romantic poems of the world. ‘Rang Hai Dil Ka Mere’<\/em> is included in his collection ‘Dast-e-Tah-e-Sang’<\/em> and was recited in August 1963 in Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is now officially a summer tradition. On another hot humid sleepless night, I chanced upon an absolute gem of a poem and could not resist translating it mainly to simplify things for my own sake. Enjoy the amazing imagery in this poem by (who else !) Faiz Ahmed Faiz. tum jo na aaye the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1809,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/1809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirnetwork.com\/justju\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}