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?