Dareechah-e-Nigaarish

Majeed Amjad

1914 Jhang, British India - 1974 Sahiwal (Montgomery), Pakistan

Socio-political poems of modern Urdu poet Majeed Amjad

Translated into English by Talat Afroze

جیسے جسیے وقت گزرتا جائے گا، مجید امجد کی اِس آفاقی نظم طلوع ِ فرض کی اہمیت میں اضافہ ہوتا جائے گا۔ اِس نظم میں کاروان ِ فرض کے مختلف کردار دکھائے گئے ہیں جن کی شکلوں میں مجید امجد کی ذات کی جھلکیاں نظر آتی ہیں ۔   یہ جدید اُردو نظم میں ایک اچھوُتا اور نادر نقطہ ءِ نظر ہے ۔ ۔ ۔ یہاں میَں اِس نظم کا اردو متن اور اپنا لکھا ہؤا انگریزی ترجمہ درج کر رہا ہوُں۔

The Dawn of Destined Duty

by Majeed Amjad (1914 – 1974)

Translation by Talat Afroze

Am off and away . . . to my office at dawn

Off and away . . . a fellow traveler among a caravan of hundreds

The Bazaar, crowded with humanity . . .

Some woman's hand hoarding henna-painted flowers in its palm

Holds the charmed reigns of Time itself

While someone's palm bears scratches from the thorns of Labor,

On the Road to Eternity, with eyes shut tight

Some are walking ahead and some behind . . .

The water in the open gutter at the road's bend

Goes writhing, tossing and turning, ever forward

Bearing blows from the sweeper's broom . . .

The same compulsion of this calamity of destined Purpose

That drives the angst of its movement

Also dwells within every uneven step I take . . .

Some silent bird flies on wards

Spinning a golden web of Hope

Looking to peck a grain or two . . .

In the blowing gales of Life's expanse

All must go forward with moist eyes

I must walk on and it must fly on . . .

Look, a blind beggar woman tottered

To grab on to the lamp post at the Square

And hold passers by with her lament

This outspread, soiled shirt tail she presents for alms

This begging bowl, this noisy sing-song plea she makes

Remind me of my office, my files, my work table . . .

What drives him, he is so young

That even his school bag is a burden too much for him,

This young boy who is going to school . . .

A member of the caravan of Life . . .

What chain is this, O Lord of Destiny's dungeons

That binds the feet of young and old alike ?

She has come down (this prostitute)

From her tiny flat above,

To forget the memories of the past night

And buy a betel leaf treat from the Paan shop . . .

As if to make a face at and defy the World at large . . .

The same thought worries her and haunts me as well:

How to brave the loneliness of the oncoming night . . .

A shiny car has just whizzed by . . .

The dust on the road turned over, awakened

Rose up and ran after it for a few paces

This continuity of blows from kicking feet, raining down

Gives us wings, is our predicament

And also our life's earnings:

For the dust on the road and for me alike!

Somewhere in the garden, a bee sipped

The nectar of flowers, intoxicating as wine

While elsewhere a crawling insect swallowed

The bitter, foul tasting waters of a rotting pond . . .

However, both had the same purpose: to live a moment or two

Here comes the river of blood-stained waters from Life's Dominion

Flowing forward from the light of dawn

A torrent of sweat and tears

In whose waves are floating away

The begging bowl of the beggar,

The gemstone lined wine goblet of the Persian Emperor Jamsheed,

The worker's axe and sickle

And the writer's pen . . .

Am off and away . . . to my office at dawn

Off and away . . . a fellow traveler among a caravan of hundreds

16^th August, 1943, Sahiwal, Pakistan.

Page 148, Collected Works of Majeed Amjad, 1988, Edited by Dr. Khawaja Mohammad Zikriya, Mavara Publishers, The Mall Road, Lahore, Pakistan.