Ode To Love(Faiz Ahmad Faiz)

us ne kahaa aao,

us ne kahaa Thehro

muskuraao kahaa us ne

mar jaao kahaa us ne

maiN aaya,

maiN Thehar gayaa,

muskuraaaya

aur mar bhii gayaa

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

For Vera

She said Come

She said Stay

Smile she said

She said Die

I came

I didn’t leave

Yes, I smiled

And I even died.

(Translated from Faiz’s Urdu version of a poem by Nazim Hikmet addressed to his Russian wife, Vera)