1 मई 2022

मज़दूरों का गीत

मेहनत से ये माना चूर हैं हम
आराम से कोसों दूर हैं हम
पर लड़ने पर मजबूर हैं हम
मज़दूर हैं हम मज़दूर हैं हम

गो आफ़त ओ ग़म के मारे हैं
हम ख़ाक नहीं हैं तारे हैं
इस जग के राज-दुलारे हैं
मज़दूर हैं हम मज़दूर हैं हम

बनने की तमन्ना रखते हैं
मिटने का कलेजा रखते हैं
सरकश हैं सर ऊँचा रखते हैं
मज़दूर हैं हम मज़दूर हैं हम

हर चन्द कि हैं अदबार में हम
कहते हैं खुले बाज़ार में हम
हैं सब से बड़े संसार में हम
मज़दूर में हम मज़दूर हैं हम

जिस सम्त बढ़ा देते हैं क़दम
झुक जाते हैं शाहों के परचम
सावन्त हैं हम बलवन्त हैं हम
मज़दूर हैं हम मज़दूर हैं हम

गो जान पे लाखों बार बनी
कर गुज़रे मगर जो जी में ठनी
हम दिल के खरे बातों के धनी
मज़दूर हैं हम मज़दूर हैं हम

हम क्या हैं कभी दिखला देंगे
हम नज़्म-ए-कुहन को ढा देंगे
हम अर्ज़-ओ-समा को हिला देंगे
मज़दूर हैं हम मज़दूर हैं हम

हम जिस्म में ताक़त रखते हैं
सीनों में हरारत रखते हैं
हम अज़्म-ए-बग़ावत रखते हैं
मज़दूर हैं हम मज़दूर हैं हम

जिस रोज़ बग़ावत कर देंगे
दुनिया में क़यामत कर देंगे
ख़्वाबों को हक़ीक़त कर देंगे
मज़दूर हैं हम मज़दूर हैं हम

हम क़ब्ज़ा करेंगे दफ़्तर पर
हम वार करेंगे क़ैसर पर
हम टूट पड़ेंगे लश्कर पर
मज़दूर हैं हम मज़दूर हैं हम

---मजाज़ लखनवी

23 अप्रैल 2022

स्कूल चले हम (School chale hum)

ओहो हो ओहो हो हो हो…

सवेरे सवेरे, यारों से मिलने, बन ठन के निकले हम
सवेरे सवेरे, यारों से मिलने, घर से दूर चले हम
रोके से ना रुके हम , मर्ज़ी से चलें हम
बादल सा गरजें हम , सावन सा बरसे हम
सूरज सा चमके हम - स्कूल चलें हम
ओहो..हो ओहो..हो हो..हो हो

इसके दरवाज़े से दुनिया के राज़ खुलते है
कोई आगे चलता है हम पीछे चलते है
दीवारों पे किस्मत अपनी लिखी जाती है
इस से हमको जीने की वजह मिलती जाती है

रोके से ना रुके हम , मर्ज़ी से चलें हम
बादल सा गरजें हम , सावन सा बरसें हम
सूरज सा चमके हम - स्कूल चलें हम
स्कूल चलें हम, हो..हो.. हो

ओहो..हो ओहो..हो हो..हो हो
रोके से ना रुके हम , मर्ज़ी से चलें हम
बादल सा गरजें हम , सावन सा बरसें हम
स्कूल चलें हम

21 अप्रैल 2022

चुप्पियाँ

चुप्पियाँ बढ़ती जा रही हैं
उन सारी जगहों पर
जहाँ बोलना जरूरी था
बढ़ती जा रही हैं वे
जैसे बढ़ते बाल
जैसे बढ़ते हैं नाख़ून
और आश्चर्य कि किसी को वह गड़ती तक नहीं..

~ केदारनाथ सिंह

15 अप्रैल 2022

'Civil Service Romance'

The Letter 

Subject: Improvement of Bilateral Ties

Dear Miss:
With due respect and humble submission
I beg to welcome you to neighboring section.
I am coming the other day.
early for change
in view of new Boss
and you are also coming up the same stairway.
Power is failing as per schedule
and the lift will not move.
Not even down.
Five floors is no joke for fair sex
but still you are climbing and smiling.
I am sweating but you are glowing.
and becoming very beautiful.
Hitherto also you are pretty
needless to say. This is the face
I am saying to myself
to expedite launching of vessels.
Fair Helen, I am mentally drafting
make me immortal crew member.
You are joining as lower division assistant.
but you are Upper Division lady to me.
I was lower division initially
and rose by dint of good performance
I will teach sweet lady to follow suit
I am thinking at once: how to do
the buttering of boss. 

- Kaiser Hamidul Haq

9 अप्रैल 2022

College Days ( 대학 시절)

Trashed books piled underneath wooden chairs.
A forest of cottonwoods was deep and beautiful,
But even the leaves were used as weapons in it
Determined youths arrived at this beautiful forest
Then passed through it with their eyes closed.
On the top of stone steps
I read Plato, and I heard gunshots each time.
When magnolias bloomed, friends dispersed to jail or army.
A poet in the year below me confessed of being an informant.
There was a professor I admired but he never spoke.
After a few winters I was left alone,
And then it was graduation. I was scared to leave school.

--- Gi Hyeong-do (Source: Published collection of poems The Black Leaf in My Mouth (입 속의 검은 잎) and translated by Jack Saebyok Jung) 

8 अप्रैल 2022

To Paint The Portrait Of A Bird

First paint a cage
With an open door
Then paint
Something pretty
Something simple
Something beautiful
Something useful
For the bird
Then place the canvas against a tree
In a garden
In a wood
Or in a forest
Hide yourself behind the tree
Without speaking
Without moving...
Sometimes the bird will arrive soon
But it could also easily take many years
For it to decide
Wait
Wait if necessary for years
The rapidity or slowness of the arrival of the bird
Has no connection with the success of the painting
When the bird arrives
If it arrives
Observe the most profound silence
Wait until the bird enters the cage
And when it has entered
Gently close the door with the brush
Then
Erase one by one all of the bars
While being careful not to touch any of the feathers of the bird
Then make a portrait of the tree
Choosing the most beautiful of its branches
For the bird
Paint also the green foliage and the freshness of the wind
The dust of the sun
And the noise of the creatures of the grass in the heat of summer
And then wait for the bird to decide to sing
If the bird does not sing
It's a bad sign
A sign that the painting is no good
But if it does sing it's a good sign
A sign that you can sign.
Then you gently pull out
One of the feathers of the bird
And you sign your name in a corner of the painting.

---Jacques Prévert

2 अप्रैल 2022

The Brook

I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.

By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorpes, a little town,
And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Philip's farm I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.

With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
With willow-weed and mallow.

I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling,

And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel
With many a silvery waterbreak
Above the golden gravel,

And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.

I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;

And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

---Alfred Lord Tennyson