Pity the nation

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

---Lawrence Ferlinghetti

जो गुज़ारी न जा सकी हमसे...

बे-क़रारी सी बे-क़रारी है
वस्ल है और फ़िराक़ तारी है

जो गुज़ारी न जा सकी हमसे
हमने वो ज़िंदगी गुज़ारी है

निघरे क्या हुए कि लोगों पर
अपना साया भी अब तो भारी है
बिन तुम्हारे कभी नहीं आई
क्या मेरी नींद भी तुम्हारी है

आप में कैसे आऊँ मैं तुझ बिन
साँस जो चल रही है आरी है

उस से कहियो कि दिल की गलियों में
रात दिन तेरी इंतिज़ारी है
हिज्र हो या विसाल हो कुछ हो
हम हैं और उस की यादगारी है

इक महक सम्त-ए-दिल से आई थी
मैं ये समझा तिरी सवारी है

हादसों का हिसाब है अपना
वर्ना हर आन सब की बारी है

ख़ुश रहे तू कि ज़िंदगी अपनी
उम्र भर की उमीद-वारी है

-: जौन एलिया

The black heralds

There are blows in life, so powerful…I don't know!
Blows as from the hatred of God; as if, facing them,
the undertow of everything suffered
welled up in the soul…I don't know!

They are few; but they are…. They open dark trenches
in the fiercest face and in the strongest back.
Perhaps they are the colts of barbaric Attilas;
or the black heralds sent to us by Death.

They are the deep falls of the Christs of the soul,
of some adored faith blasphemed by Destiny.
Those bloodstained blows are the crackling of
bread burning up at the oven door.

And man…. Poor…poor! He turns his eyes, as
when a slap on the shoulder summons us;
turns his crazed eyes, and everything lived
wells up, like a pool of guilt, in his look.

There are blows in life, so powerful…I don't know!

--- Cesar Vallejo and translated by Robert Bly