naresh nadiim (1951-living), born in deoriya, a small town in eastern UP.  Left home in his teens and never looked back.  Pulled riksha, did factory work but managed to put himself through college in the region, then aligaRh and JNU in dehli.  Completed degrees in some and not in others.  Taught school and college in rural UP for a few years before returning to dehli and earning a living as a translater of English books into hindi, punjabi and some in urdu.  Contributed to periodicals and compiled his columns into a book.  Also published a collection of Ghazal and nazm.  How he gravitated towards towards urdu in the mid 1950s, I don’t know.  He seems to have been a member of the Communist Party and wrote a history of the communist movement of India in urdu.
1
ek daastaan¹-e dard² likhi thi kitaab meN
gaali har ek samt³ se aaii javaab⁴ meN

1.story 2.pain (of love) 3.direction 4.in answer

Presumably the ‘daastaan-e dard’ – the story of the pain of love found expression in a book of poems and some critics were unhappy with it.  Abuse/scorn poured in from every direction.
2
ab kya rakha hai lutf¹ gunaah-o-savaab² meN
lutf¹-e shabaab³ hi na mila jab shabaab meN

1.pleasure 2.vice and virtue, good and bad 3.youth

Youth is supposed to be an adventurous time of life.  That is when one is supposed to enjoy the pleasures of transgression.  If you miss out on that (perhaps because of being forced to earn a living) then what pleasure is left in old age in the opportunity to transgress.
3
aye zaahedaan¹-e paak² uTho, darj³ kar lo aaj
har mumkina⁴ gunaah⁵ ko mere hisaab⁶ meN

1.observant, pious, preacher 2.virtuous 3.write down, enter 4.every possible 5.sin, transgression 6.account

O pious preacher go ahead and write down every possible transgression in my account.  The implication is that they are hypocritical, he does not care, that what they consider as ‘transgression’ is nothing but a non-observance of hypocritical traditions advocated by them.
4
roTi ke ek nisf¹ pe jhapTe hazaar chor
meri nigaah dekhti thi Dar, aqaab² meN

1.half 2.from ‘aqab’-back

A thousand thieves/robbers rush to grab even half a piece of bread, when given a chance.  Looking at this, afraid for myself, my eye turns towards my back to watch.
5
kal jin ki daastaan¹ lahu² garm kar gaii
un ke havaale³ ab na mileNge nisaab⁴ meN

1.story 2.blood 3.references 4.balance, fulcrum, minimum essential records, from nasab – heredity

Only yesterday their stories would warm the blood i.e., we would feel good hearing of their good deeds.  But today there is no reference to them, even in the most minimum required records of heredity.
6
uss ke bahaane¹ chal hi liye jitna chal sak’e
kya baat thi nadeem² vagarna³ saraab⁴ meN

1.excuse, justification 2.pen-name of the poet 3.otherwise 4.mirage

Travelers/seekers in the desert have no reason to continue on any path.  It is the same all around them … just miles of sand.  It is only that far ahead they see a mirage and walk towards it.  The mirage provides an excuse/justification to continue to walk because it gives the illusion of a stretch of water.  Thus, because of this excuse we could walk as much as we did walk, otherwise, O nadiim, what good was there in a mirage.  The implication is that the goal may be a mirage, but keep walking.