Chakley-A nazm by Sahir Ludhianvi

ye kooche ye neelaam ghar dil_kashi ke
ye luT_te hue kaarawaaN zindagii ke
kahaaN haiN, kahaaN haiN muhaafiz Khudi ke?

sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

ye pur-pech galiyaaN, ye be-Khwaab baazaar
ye gumnaam raahii, ye sikkoN ki jhaNkaar
ye ismat ke saude, ye saudoN pe takaraar

sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

ta’affun se pur neem-roshan ye galiyaaN
ye maslee hui adh-khilee zard kaliyaaN
ye bikati hui khokalii rang-raliyaaN

sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

vo ujale dareechoN meiN paayal ki chhan-chhan
tanaffus ki uljhan pe tabale ki dhan-dhan
ye be-ruuh kamroN meiN khaaNsii kii Dhan-Dhan

sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

ye guuNje hue qah-qahe raastoN par
ye chaaroN taraf bheeR si khiRkiyoN par
ye aawaazeN khiNchate hue aaNchaloN par

sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

ye phuuloN ke gajare, ye peekoN ke chheeNTe
ye be-baak nazreN, ye gustaaKh fiqare
ye Dhalake badan aur ye madqooq chehare

sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

ye bhuukii nigaaheN haseenoN ki jaanib
ye baRate hue haath seenoN ki jaanib
lapakate hue paaNv zeenoN ki jaanib

sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

yahaaN peer bhii aa chuke haiN jawaaN bhi
tanuumand beTe bhi, abbaa miyaaN bhi
ye biwi bhi hai aur behan bhi hai, maaN bhi

sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

madad chaahti hai ye hawwaa ki beTi
yashodaa ki ham-jins raadhaa ki beTi
payaMbar ki ummat zulaiKhaa ki beTi

 sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

zaraa mulk ke raahbaroN ko bulaao
ye kuuche ye galiyaaN ye maNzar dikhaao
sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq ko laao

sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?

This poem from his first collection of poems called "Talkhiyan" was used by Guru Dutt in his film "Pyaasa". Sahir merely changed the refrain-"sanaa-Khwaan-e-taqdees-e-mashriq kahaaN haiN?" with "Jinhe naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hai?"

Sahir did it many a times,using his poems as songs and changing a couple of words here and there. Like using the word 'anjaam" instead of the original word "takmeel" in the song "Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabee ban jaaaye hum dono."-from the film "Gumraah", a B R Chopra film. This again is a poem from "Talkhiyan" called "Khoobsurat mod".

Bol ke lab azad hai tere(To Shaheen Dhada)

A poem for the times by Faiz Ahmed Faiz

bol ke lab azaad hai tere
bol zubaan ab tak teri hai
tera sutwa jism hai tera

bol ke jaan ab tak teri hai
bol...bol ke lab azaad hai tere
dekh ke ahangar ki dukaan main
tund hai shole surkh hai ahan
khulne lage kafalo ke dahane
pehla har ek zanjeer ka daman
bol...bol yeh thora waqt bahut hai
jism zubaan ki maut se pehle
bol ke sach zinda hai ab tak
bol jo kuch kehna hai keh le
bol jo kuch kehna hai keh le-

Translation:
Do speak up, for your lips/thoughts are yet free
Do speak up, for your tongue is still yours
Do Speak, for your strong body is your own
And must speak, as your soul is still yours,
Heed the blacksmiths’ shop
Scorching flames turn the iron red hot
Tearing open the (jaws of) locks
every chain thus begins to break
time to speak, for this brief time is long enough
Just before your body and words die
do speak, for the truth still prevails
must speak up, say what you must.

Power of Love

I buried her. She came back. I cremated her. Yet she returned. Her phantom is more real than her. I can feel her presence in her absence. My soul wears the fragrant robe of her memory. Five years. Its been five years since she glanced at me. Its been five years since she moved on. Five years since. Since I lowered my eyes in a silent prayer and touched the sky painting a rainbow with my heart. Dark, willful cloud of my intelligence tells me to forget her and breaks my heart into a thousand suns, a thousand brilliant suns blinding my reason. O my little princess, kill me, show some more apathy, have no mercy, disrobe me off my sanity, bathe me in your child like laughter, and cradle me to a greater madness. This madness is my power of love!

Lonesome Tonight

Evening-

I sit sipping my tea

By the window

And strumming

My baby guitar

Singing a new melody

Filling it up with

Words

About

An ambitious

Dreamy girl

Telling her

I’ll wait

Wait for her here

When

A gloom clouds over

My enchanting sky

Where did they come from?

I leave

My home

To walk

Walk alone

In the crowded street

Dusty

And getting

Darker

And darker

By the minute

My mind

A whirlpool

Shadows

From

The past

Ghosts

From

The future

For company

When will they leave me?

DEADNESS

Sleep is miles away

Dreams and I like night and day

The lights go off and on

Darkness to dawn

Crawling lonesome hours

Echoing ghostly towers

Words are strangers

Emotional scavengers

When patience is rich

Wait behaves like a bitch

Nothing is “on the house”

Neither lies nor vows

Moments are empty rooms

Memories-cobweb looms

Loneliness-an archeological dream

Life is afloat beneath the stream

My guitar strums....

My guitar strums on strings of pain

Listen! To the melody of the rain

The heartbeats have fallen silent

A storm rises in my heart again.

Why does love always draw daggers

And take a spin-drive in a hearse?

Laughter evaporates into tears

No matter how well you rehearse!

The song resonates within

The four walls of a nostalgic inn

I sell the past as souvenir

Rolled up in a delicious muffin.

O! this bloodless wreckage!

The ache is the same at any age

Heavier perhaps with

A head full of baggage.

Would Mozart miss a chord

In an orchestra of discord?

My ballad’s been taken in by a twister

Hope you aren’t deaf my Lord? 

I Am

I am good only as a memory

Like-

An old faded photograph

A forgotten song

The leftover of a delicious romance

A childhood bruise

The reminiscence of a holiday

of a year one is unsure of…

The years pass by

I sit by the banks

Time and I

Oblivious of one another

The sun sets

I turn around and see

The sun rise

From the other side

A white balloon glides through the stars

An orange ball rolls by the white lilies

The sky is black

The sky is blue

The sky is white

A lotus blooms

in the waters

seduced by the moon

embraced by a serpent.