Paas Raho… (Stay Close)

.
You who demolish me, you whom I love,
be near me. Remain near me when evening,
drunk on the blood of the skies,
becomes night, in one hand
a perfumed balm, in the other
a sword sheathed in the diamond of stars.

Be near me when night laments or sings,
or when it begins to dance,
its steel-blue anklets ringing with grief.

Be here when longings, long submerged
in the heart’s waters, resurface
and everyone begins to look:
Where is the assassin? In whose sleeve
is hidden the redeeming knife?

And when wine, as it is poured, is the sobbing
of children whom nothing will console-
when nothing holds,
when nothing is:
at that dark hour when night mourns,
be near me, my destroyer, my lover,
Be Near Me.
————————————

This translation of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Paas Raho (Be Near Me), was posted by Aneed (profile at http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=15066736210512669981) in the Faiz community (thread at http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=70320&tid=2480337969859442245&start=1)

————————————-

I really like this poem and have tried to translate it myself earlier. But never with such success as the one posted above.

Faiz says “Tum mere paas raho, jab siyah raat chale, aasmano ka lahu pee ke siyah raat chale, marham-e-mushk liye, nishtar-e-almas liye”

and see here the effortless translation (first stanza) which reads well as a poem in its own right.

Whenever I read this poem in urdu i felt it so close to Neruda’s “Tonight I will sing the saddest lines” but it never seemed so in English when I was through with my attempts at translation. Here I feel Aneed, or whoever translated it, has succeeded. Congratulations!!

Read it softly, langourously; let the words roll for a while more on your tongue like mellow wine; savour this poem for it is among the best ever written.

.