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bahaar aa’ii to jaise yak baar
lauT aaye haiN phir adam se
vo Khvaab saare, shabaab saare
jo tere hoNtoN pe mar miTe the
jo miT ke har baar phir jiiye the
nikhar gaye haiN gulaab saare
jo terii yaadoN se mushk-buu haiN
jo tere ushshaaq kaa lahuu haiN

ubal paRe haiN azaab saare
malaal-e-ahvaal-e-dostaaN bhii
Khumaar-e-aaghosh-e-mahvashaaN bhii
Gubaar-e-Khaatir ke baab saare
tere hamaare
savaal saare, javaab saare
bahaar aa’ii to khul gaye haiN
naye sire se hisaab saare

Faiz Ahmed Faiz
April 1975

English Translation by Agha Shahid Ali from The Rebel’s Silhouette.

It Is Spring Again

It is spring, And the ledger is opened again.
From the abyss where they were frozen,
those days suddenly return, those days
that passed away from your lips, that died
with all our kisses, unaccounted.
The roses return: they are your fragrance;
they are the blood of your lovers.
Sorrow returns. I go through my pain
and the agony of friends still lost in the memory
of moon-silver arms, the caresses of vanished women.
I go through page after page. There are no answers,
and spring has come once again asking
the same questions, reopening account after account.

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