In Pursuit of Death

by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi

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


There's nothing at all in the house
but a dark scent

Nothing glows now
but the firefly
of fear

When I searched the mountain foothills, there was nothing there
but the scent of blood scattered
on snow

She went away:  there was nothing left in my eyes
but a deer's sooty green-glowing
leap





[dar-paa-e ajal]
translated by Frances W. Pritchett