Click here for background and on any passage for word meanings and explanatory discussion. ahmad faraz (1931-2008) popular love and romance poet as well as a substantial contributor to progressive themes. This is one of two Ghazal/nazm that faraz wrote in tribute to faiz ahmed faiz.

qalam¹ ba-dast² huN, hairaan³ huN ke kya likkhooN
maiN teri baat, ke duniya ka tazkira⁴ likkhooN1.pen 2.in hand 3.perplexed 4.story
I sit pen in hand, wondering what I should write. Should I write about you, or about the world/homeland. This of course is a reflection of what faiz did … write about the homeland disguised as the beloved.

likhuN ke tu ne mohabbat ki raushni likkhi
tere suKhan¹ ko sitaarauN ka qaafila² likkhuN1.words, verse 2.caravan
Should I write that you wrote about the light of love, that your words were like a train of stars – guides, showing the path.

jahaaN yazid bahut hoN, husain akela ho
to kyuN na apni zamiN ko bhi karbala likkhuNThis has reference to the story of karbala in which husain and a handful of his followers took a stand against the tyranny of yazid in the face of certain death. This story is often used as a symbolism in urdu poetry. Where there are many yazids and only one husain, why should I not write about my homeland as karbala. The implication is that there were many oppressors and a lonely voice (faiz) taking a stand against them.

tere baGhair¹ hai har naqsh² ‘naqsh-e faryaadi’³
to phool ‘dast-e saba’⁴ par hai aabla⁵ likkhuN1.without 2.sketch, picture 3.picture of appeal/lament, title of one of faiz’s books 4.hand of the zephyr/morning breeze, title on another one of faiz’s books 5.blister
In this and many of the following asha’ar titles of books of faiz are used as a tribute. Without you, every picture is a picture of lament. Should I then write that even flowers are blisters because of the hand of the morning zephyr. The rose and the morning breeze are both normally considered very pleasant. But (given the political conditions) the morning breeze is poisonous and petals curl up like blisters.

misaal¹-e ‘dast-e tah-e saNg’² thi vafa³ un ki
so kis-tarah⁴ unheN yaaraan⁵-e ba-safa⁶ likkhuN1.like, as if 2.hand under a rock, under duress, title of one of faiz’s books 3.faith, love 4.how can I, where can I find words 5.friends, lovers 6.pure
faiz uses a phrase from Ghalib’s sh’er as a title of one of his books. The she’r is also used verbatim in one of faiz’s Ghazals. The misra ‘dast-e tah-e saNg aamada paimaan-e vafa hai’ is used to mean, ‘now that we have made a commitment to love, there is no escape, it is as if our hand is caught under a rock’. Thus says faraz, faiz and his comrades were caught up in the love of homeland. How can I find words to describe those ‘friends of true faith’.

hadees¹-e koocha-e-qaatil² hai ‘naama-e zindaaN’³
so is ko qissa⁴-e taazeer⁵-e naarava⁶ likkhuN1.sermon, lecture 2.street of the killer 3.story of prison, one of the books of faiz zindaaN naama, which he wrote from prison 4.story 5.punishment 6.not permissible, inadmissible, unjustified
Your zindaaN-naama was like a lecture/protest written from the street of the killer. So I should write about it and describe it as unjust punishment.

jagah jagah haiN salebeN¹ mere dareeche² meN
so ism³-e eesa⁴ o mansoor⁵ ja-ba-jaa⁶ likkhuN1.window rods, iron bars – also, gallows, cross 2.window 3.name 4.Jesus 5.mansoor al hallaaj 6.every place
Here both Jesus and mansoor al hallaj are used as symbols of victims of an injustice and tyranny. This also has reference to the many imprisonments of faiz … there are iron bars on all my windows. Thus I should write the names of Jesus and mansoor everywhere. The imagery is of a prisoner carving names/messages on prison walls.

girafta¹ dil hai bahut ‘shaam-e shahr-e yaaraaN’² aaj
kahaaN hai tu, ke tujhe haal³-e dilbaraaN⁴ likkhuN1.in the grip of 2.evening of the city of friends, title of one of the books of faiz 3.condition 4.friends
Today my heart is in the grip of ‘shaam-e shahr-e yaaraaN’ i.e. I am pining for an evening with comrades. Thus says faraz, where are you, that I may write about the condition of your friends.

kahaaN gaya hai ‘mere dil mere musaafir’¹ tu
ke maiN tujhe rah-o-manzil² ka maajra³ likkhuN1.my heart, my traveler/explorer, title of one of faiz’s books 2.pathway and destination 3.condition, description
Where have you gone, my friend, my explorer that I may write to you the condition of the pathway and destination. The destination being peace and justice and the pathway people’s struggle for it.

tu mujh ko chhoR gaya likh ke ‘nusKha haa-e vafa’¹
maiN kis tarah tujhe aye dost be-vafa² likkhuN1.prescriptions of love/faith, title of the collection of faiz’s books 2.faithless
You left me, but you wrote for me prescriptions of keeping faith. How then, can I write of you as faithless. Culturally when somone leaves/dies, they might be referred to as faithless. But faiz has kept faith and left prescriptions of faith, therefore, is exonerated.

shaheed-jism¹ salaamat² uThaaye jaate haiN
Khuda na-karda³ ke maiN tera marsia⁴ likkhuN1.body of martyr 2.complete, unblemished 3.god forbid 4.elegy
Traditional belief is that martyrs rise from the dead and become immortal. Thus, faraz implies that faiz is a martyr, will rise unblemished and be immortal. God forbid, that he should be called upon to write an elegy to him.