To ostatnia niedziela ( This is the Last Sunday )

The weary sun
Gently parted with the sea,
At this hour you declared,
There is no love.

I was saddened slightly -
Without anguish, without sorrow
At this hour resounded
Your words.

As we part, I will not be angry,
The fault lies with me and you.

The weary sun
Gently parted with the sea,
At this hour you declared,
There is no love.

--- Zenon Friedwald

Migrating Birds

That summer with its total lie;
O pang we learned at autumn's hands.
Under the cloudscape, slow and high,
A blackwing bird before my eye
Wheeling for southern lands.

The wildgeese magicked into flight,
The clamoring cries of cranes that soar
Over the land in gilded light.
And then the shadow pulled down tight
In winter blackout till they trek once more.

Sensitive heart, senses laid bare!
You have no nest in east or west,
Landsick and restless here as there.
Just learn to love life everywhere
Or what is left of life and rest.

--- Hubert van Herreweghen
Translated by A.Z. Foreman

WILD GEESE

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

---Mary Oliver

Alice after Wonderland

The bedroom reeks of really old sweat.
Alice has risen up from wonderland,
Waking with an adventure-woozy head.
Her slippers do not fit. Her hand

Combs a few hairs down flat. She steps
Out of her gown. Everything shivers.
The mirror is mist, her breath is bitter.
The night escapes her porous flesh.

Little girl Alice is back in time.
Gazing back through her wizened up eyes
She sees on the farther side of her dream,
A woman ugly with reality.

---Bernard Dewulf
Translated by A.Z. Foreman

Today I am Modest

Today I am modest as an animal,
Spread flush as rainwashed fields.
With a small fat hand I lead
My life towards compassion and children.
Today each stranger, each sufferer
Comes to me.
My heart's little gifts
Patter rain-like about me.
And already I carry Tomorrow-
Its weight closed in
And again leaping out,
Without looking, toward all the unknown.

---Esther Raab
Translated by A.Z. Foreman

नहीं निगाह में मंज़िल तो जुस्तजू ही सही

नहीं निगाह में मंज़िल तो जुस्तजू[1] ही सही
नहीं विसाल मयस्सर[2] तो आरज़ू ही सही

न तन में ख़ून फ़राहम[3] न अश्क आँखों में
नमाज़-ए-शौक़ तो वाजिब[4] है बे-वज़ू ही सही

यही बहुत है केः सालिम है दिल का पैराहन
ये चाक-चाक गरेबान बेरफ़ू ही सही

किसी तरह तो जमे बज़्म मैकदे वालो
नहीं जो बादा-ओ-साग़र तो हा-ओ-हू ही सही

गर इन्तज़ार कठिन है तो जब तलक ऐ दिल
किसी के वादा-ए-फ़र्दा[5] से गुफ़्तगू ही सही

दयार-ए-ग़ैर[6] में महरम[7] अगर नहीं कोई
तो 'फ़ैज़' ज़िक्र-ए-वतन अपने रू-ब-रू[8] ही सही

---फ़ैज़ अहमद फ़ैज़

1- तलाश
2- उपलब्ध
3- मौजूद
4- आवश्यक
5- कल के वादे
6- पराई धरती
7- अपना
8- समक्ष

सर्जना के क्षण

एक क्षण भर और रहने दो मुझे अभिभूत :
फिर जहाँ मैंने सँजोकर और भी सब रखी हैं ज्योति:शिखाएँ
वहीं तुम भी चली जाना-शांत तेजोरूप।
एक क्षण भर और
लंबे सर्जना के क्षण कभी भी हो नहीं सकते।
बूँद स्वाती की भले हो, बेधती है मर्म सीपी का उसी निर्मम त्वरा से
वज्र जिससे फोड़ता चट्टान को
भले ही फिर व्यथा के तम में बरस कर बरस बीतें
एक मुक्ता-रूप को पकते।

--- अज्ञेय