Ruba'i V

by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi

*handwritten Urdu text by the author, early 1980's*


Smiling, I'd hear
your words in the market
your promises
from the forest's mouth.
In the deep snaky silence if you
called me once
I'd hear a hundred times.




[;xandaan terii baate;N sar-e baazaar sunuu;N]
translated by Frances W. Pritchett