Melancholetta

from the poetry club

message to all the BITSians that visit the blog..especially those who left before last sem:
i don't know how many of you have heard about the formation of a poetry club. well it was formed last year and mostly the present second yearites are running it.. they are doing some really good work and even conducted events during oasis!!!

here's a poem that was fwded to me from their mailing list.

Be Near Me

You who demolish me, you whom I love,
be near me. Remain near me when evening,
drunk on the blood of the skies,
becomes night, in its one hand
a perfumed balm, in the other
a sword sheathed in the diamond of stars.

Be near me when night laments or sings,
or when it begins to dance,
its steel-blue anklets ringing with grief.

Be here when longings, long submerged
in the heart's waters, resurface
and when everyone begins to look:
Where is the assassin? In whose sleeve
is hidden the redeeming knife?

And when wine, as it is poured, is the sobbing
of children whom nothing will console -
when nothing holds,
when nothing is:
at that dark hour when night mourns,
be near me, my destroyer, my lover,
be near me.

-- Faiz Ahmed Faiz(1911-1984)

translated from Urdu by Agha Shahid Ali.

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One of the foremost poets in the Indian sub-continent, Faiz Ahmed Faiz
was
born in Sialkot in Pakistan. He studied philosophy and English
literature,
but poetry and politics preoccupied him more than anything else. For
writing poetry that always antagonizes the ruling lite and challenges
colonial and feudal values, like such rebellious writers as Ngugi of
Kenya
and Darwish of Palestine, Faiz had to go to jail repeatedly during both
colonial and postcolonial times in Pakistan. Inspired by the Marxist
ideology, Faiz's poetry exhibits a strong sense of commitment to
lower-class people, yet it always maintains a unique beauty nourished by
the long, rich tradition of Urdu literature. His love poems are as
appealing as his political poems, and he is considered primarily
responsible for shaping poetic diction in contemporary Urdu poetry.
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posted by chitra @ 11:50 PM