Tuesday, April 14, 2009

SILENCE - لب خاموش

An English Rendering of a Dari Poem
لب خاموش
by
Dr. Noor A Khalidi

Am I really done with desire?
Then let me keep my peace
And pay no heed to the murmurings of my heart!

The day you stepped into my world
I was bewitched
And so brash that I
thought never to let you go.

But now you are really gone,
I shall try to bury bitter memories
Nor shall my verses labour
what in the end was but an illusion

The words were there plain in your eyes
but what I sought was no temporary celebration

My heart did not want to know then
that for you it was just a toy

But now I turn to the brighter prospect of a new day without such cares
The tears of that time are gone and any more tomorrow would be a waste

And yet, though still I look on every side
your face that once lit as the moon my nights
dims and departs

Absence and distance I had hoped
would ease such memories
Yet the pain of what might have been
sneaks back
and these regrets , I cannot relinquish
even in the silence of your absence

I am left with that endless sense of love

… and your silence
English idiomatic version rendered
by Tony Burton
from an English translation

No comments:

Post a Comment