Faiz Ahmed Faiz, 'City of Lights'

[smithkingsley.livejournal.com]

On each patch of green, from one shade to the next,
the noon is erasing itself by wiping out all color,
becoming pale, desolation everywhere,
the poison of exile painted on the walls.
In the distance,
there are terrible sorrows, like tides:
they draw back, swell, become full, subside.
They've turned the horizon to mist.
And behind that mist is the city of lights,
my city of many lights.

How will I return to you, my city,
where is the road to your lights? My hopes
are in retreat, exhausted by these unlit, broken walls,
and my heart, their leader, is in terrible doubt.

But let all be well, my city, if under
cover of darkness, in a final attack,
my heart leads its reserves of longings
and storms you tonight. Just tell all your lovers
to turn the wicks of their lamps high
so that I may find you, Oh, city,
my city of many lights.

(translated from the Urdu by Agha Shahid Ali)

Comments

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

Hats off to Agha Shahid Ali for this translation. I just - I can't seem to discover which city, if at all, FAF had in mind when he wrote this? He lived all his life in Sialkot, right?

[smithkingsley.livejournal.com]

I love Shahid's translations of Faiz. ♥

I was in Amritsar recently and was surprised to learn that Faiz had worked there for a while. I suppose he could be referring to any city that he loved (he lived in Karachi and Lahore as well, and I remember reading somewhere that he really loved Delhi). I would love to know if he meant a specific city though, so will hunt for more info. When I first read the poem, I saw an almost-mythological city in my mind's eye (and for some reason the aurora borealis was part of the image, lol).

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

I should have Googled before I commented! I understand he went to prison convicted of political conspiracy against the Pakistani government - this was post-Independence, btw - and wrote this looking at the lights of Lahore through his prison window.

To me it resonates with my own feelings about Mumbai, which is my terra mater. I will be coming back to this poem again and again as the aniversary of the November attacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Mumbai_attacks) approaches.

I've always wanted to go to Amritsar! Were you just visiting?

[smithkingsley.livejournal.com]

and wrote this looking at the lights of Lahore through his prison window.

Wow, thanks for finding that out. The image of Faiz looking through his prison window reminds me of Ranjit Hoskote's 'Ghalib in the Winter of the Great Revolt'.

That is a grim reminder about the attacks; it seems so strange that a year has gone by already. I haven't been to Mumbai since I was a child, but the attacks were no less horrifying for that.

Yes, I was just visiting. I was in Delhi for a bit and it just seemed about time to make my first visit to Punjab. I'm not religious, but Harmandir Sahib (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmandir_Sahib) was quite an experience.