tum mere paas raho

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Click above to listen this nazm in Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s own voice.

Source: Library of Congress

paas raho

mere qaatil, mere dildaar, mere paas raho
jis ghaRii raat chale
aasmaanoN kaa lahuu pii kar siyaah raat chale
marham-e-mushk liye nashtar-e-almaas chale
bain kartii hu’ii, haNstii hu’ii, gaatii nikle
dard ke kaasnii paazeb bajaatii nikle
jis ghaRii siinoN meN Duubte hu’e dil
aastiinoN meN nihaaN haathoN kii rah takne lagiiN

aas liye
aur bachchoN ke bilakhne kii tarah qul-qul-e-mai
bahr-e-naasuudgii machle to manaaye na mane
jab ko’ii baat banaaye na bane
jab na ko’ii baat chale
jis ghaRii raat chale
jis ghaRii maatamii, sun-saan, siyaah raat chale
paas raho
mere qaatil, mere dildaar, mere paas raho !

Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Moscow 1963

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

Be Near Me

You who demolish me, you whom I love,
be near me. Remain near me when evening,
drunk on the blood of skies,
becomes night, 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 stell-blue anklets ringing with grief.

Be here when longings, long submerged
in the heart’s waters, resurface
and everyone begins to look:
Where is the assasin? 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 me,
be near me.