tere bistar pe miri jaan kabhii
be karaaN raat ke sannaaTe meiN
jazba-e-shauq se ho jaate haiN aaza madhosh
aur lazzat ki giraaNbaari se
zehan ban jaataa hai daldal kisii veeraane ki
Aur kahiiN iske qareeb
neend aagaaz-e-zamistaN ke parinde ki tarah
Khauf dil meiN kisii mauhoom shikaari ke liye
apne par Tolti hai, cheekhtii hai
be karaaN raat ke sannaaTe meiN
tere bistar pe miri jaan kabhii
aarzooeN tire seene ke kuhistaanoN meiN
zulm sahte hue habshi ki tarah rengtii haiN
ek lamhe ke liye dil meiN khayaal aataa hai
tu mirii jaan nahiiN…
balke saahil ke kisi shahr kii dosheeza hai
aur tire mulk ke dushman ka sipaahii hooN maiN
ek muddat se jise aisii koi shab na mili
ke zaraa rooh ko apnii woh subak baar kare
be panaah aish ke hejaan ka armaaN le kar
apne daste se kai roz se mafroor hooN maiN
tire bistar pe miri jaan kabhii
be karaaN raat ke sannaaTe meiN
——-
Translation by K.C. Kanda
Stretched on your bed sometime
in the deadly silent night,
Desire-drunk my limbs slip into a delirious state;
and my brain, luxury-weighed,
becomes a barren marshy ground.
Somewhere near at hand, the sleep,
Like an early winter-bird,
Dreading some hunter’s sudden swoop,
Flutters its wings and screams.
In the deadly, silent night,
Stretched on your bed sometime,
Restless longings deep suppressed in the caverns of your breast,
like a bonded negro slave, cringe and crawl for life.
A momentary thought distrubs my mind:
You are not my life…….
But a damsel of some town on an alien shore,
and I, a soldier of the country now at war with your folks;
Who hasn’t for a single night
His weary soul regaled.
Bursting with a spate of longings, thirsting for the feast,
Fleeing from my regiment, I come to seek relief,
Stretched in your bed I muse
in the deadly, silent night.