Mahfuuz

My little place in space. Read my words...and to know me, leave your mark.

Name:
Location: India

Monday, May 29, 2006

[Verse] Unreal

I see
you and me
holding hands,
sitting by the creek,
our eyes entwined
in a mute conversation
Life breathes in inertness

Imprisoned for keeps
in a two-dimensional canvas,
merely an unreal moment in time
Away from the unpalatable stench,
painful grunts and pleading eyes
of our fast decaying love

Vijay © 29th May, 2006

Sunday, May 28, 2006

[Transcreation] Dedications - Faiz Ahmed Faiz

To today
and
to today’s anguish
Anguish, which is gloomy even in life’s full bloom
A forest yellowed in fall
A forest yellowed in fall, my land
A congregation of pain, my land

To the dejected lives of Clerks
To moth-eaten hearts and voices
In the name of the Postmen
In the name of the Tonga-pullers
In the name of Railway employees
To the innocent workers in factories
In the name of the Emperor, master, the mouthpiece of God and peasants

To one whose cattle the uncouth took away
Whose daughter the dacoits mauled away
Whose one hand was devoured by the weeds in the fields
and the other amputated by State taxes
Whose legs have been smashed
beneath the mighty and the powerful

In the name of those sad mothers
whose children cry out in the nights
unmanageable to sleepy, weary shoulders
unable to explain distress
indifferent to promises and weeps

In the name of the lasses
whose beautiful eyes
blossomed behind curtains and indoor plants
and have withered away in time

In the name of those married
whose bodies groan and protest
adorned on insincere loveless beds

To the widows

In the name of hamlets, alleys and localities
in their unholy trash
moonlight bathes itself, night after night
and in their shadows mourn
Henna-dried palms
bangles jingling on wrists
fragrance of tresses
To ambitious able bodies frying in own sweat

To the readers
To those, who went to the leaders,
with folded hands, to rescue pen and paper from clutches
but who never returned

To those humble and guiltless, who naively went
with the desire to keep alive their tiny lamps,
and were rewarded with the largesse of pitch darkness


In the name of the incarcerated
The pearls of future in their hearts
in the gloomy anxious nights of the prison
which now glow like the stars

For the ambassadors of tomorrow
who like fragrance to the flowers
are enamored by their own words

**Left incomplete by Faiz**


Nazm in Urdu by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Trancreation by Vijay © 29th May, 2006

Saturday, May 20, 2006

In remembrance of my late father

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Tuesday, May 16, 2006

[Poem] Untitled

Unsaid words
remain
the only bond
between you and me

Some lost moments
remain
my only memories
of you and me

An unbridgeable chasm
is what remains
on an earth
we tread together

Notes of an unsung song
kills belligerent hopes
in a cold coffin
six feet beneath the ground.

Vijay © 17th May, 2006

Friday, May 12, 2006

[Poem] Marooned

We shared the ground
when all else drowned
We ate from a bowl
stark to the soul

We weaved a thatch
for our dreams to hatch
Time flew by
in many hues of the sky

Then you wanted a half
The wheat, not the chaff
Some hard choices
Pin-prick voices

I uttered no word
Not a grunt was heard
Immersed in my pride
my silent protest died

You rolled the dice
Your wily device
Then a shrill cry
A victor’s high

As spoils you count
This is my account
You gained but you lost
what you valued the most
I lost but I won
Learnt, trust no one!


Vijay © 12th May, 2006

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

[Poem] The Devil

Trapped in a human body,
try hard, I do, to escape
Tell tale signs I flash
Murder, mayhem and rape

Still when you try and slay
the body but not me
To this undiscerning fire
you just add more ghee

Vijay © 10th May, 2006

Monday, May 08, 2006

Quest

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Where was I?

How far, how long have I traveled? How many mornings have I seen? How many evenings have I passed? How many nights have I played hide and seek with sleep?

On my way were the springs, where ideas were born, or should I say "sprung from the spring"?

Restless rivulets ferried them to their unknown destinies.

The rivers chiseled them, polished them.

Then the Sea, stretched afar till the eyes can see, with its open arms embracing, sheltering them with her lap.

It is here they say the streams merge, complimenting and supplementing each other.

Where am I now?

On the beach I stand.

A loner looking at the waves his ideas have created, trying to place them in their respective slots.

They vie with each other and come rumbling down falling on the beach the very next moment.

They stretch themselves, prostrate at my feet honoring me.

Perhaps, a tribute to me. After all, I am their father, their reason to be, so I think.

Perchance, as if destined, couplet from an old song blares from the transistor in Joe's ramshackle shack.


hogaa masiihaa saamane tere
phir bhii na tuu bach paayegaa
tera apana khuun hii aakhir
tujhko aag lagaayegaa*


How long, before they disown me?
The quest continues.
===========================================

* An arms-length from the angel, you may be
yet, what is destined, shall happen
It's the one borne of your blood
who will finally light your pyre.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Ek Omkar