Faiz, do you see?
The tyrannous autumn has thieved your words,
its winds shattered the domes of freedom –
where your azaad heart sleeps.
Leafless trees like monuments of revolution,
stooped their heads crying at the fallen songs.
Faiz, do you see?
The fervour of the wildest autumn,
tearing through words of love and revolution,
like bulldozers razing over an innocent child.
The rivers carry dead leaves, dead poets,
singing the songs of dead love and dead freedom.
Oh Faiz, now I see.
Let the autumn reign, let it turn into a heartless cold.
For you are the spring, the love, the seed of words.
In time, the fallen trees will rise with new voices,
the rivers will again sing the songs of democracy,
and the dead poets will be reborn as flowers of a new world.
Gokul GK is a freelance journalist based in Trivandrum.
Featured image: Urdu poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz