Tairi Awaz

Night was howling the air was heavy
A grief with no name clouded my soul
My heart insisted you come and comfort it
And I was trying—damn it!—to get it to sleep

For hours the shining stars pricked my eyes
For hours my mind burned with loneliness
You didn’t come to see your forgotten friend
You didn’t come to me in that lonely night

But then your voice suddenly swept in
As if a waterfall burst through the heart of a mountain
Or as if a bold and naughty star in love with the earth
Suddenly dove from the sky

Honey was stirred into my sour loneliness
Colors fanned out in the dark chambers of my heart
For a long time your trancing voice echoed in me
Like flowers popping open in the wild

You were far away in a glittering gathering
But I felt as if you’d come to me
Secreting my lost dreams in your songs
Smoothing my rumpled sleep

The features of your face dawned
On the night’s horizon
Same silent eyes same humble glance
Same scarf just off your shoulder same shiver in the walk

You weren’t with me but till morning
Every breath of yours lightly grazed my body
The sight of you fell drop by drop like dew
Moment after moment was filled with your fragrance

If that’s how you want it my darling my calm
Then I won’t wait for you on dark nights
But my longing eyes will find you
In a rainstorm of songs and poetry

When your love haunts me
Your trancing voice will mold my life
And this soul so restless for you
Will insist on its songs

Your songs with the coolness of your beauty
Will pour into my burning world
For a few moments or forever
And sway my restless night to sleep


Sahir Ludhyanvi
Translated from Urdu by Hamida Banu Chopra and Zack Rogow