Ahmad Faraz rekhta blog

Five Never-Heard-Before Couplets of Ahmad Faraz

Syed Ahmad Shah (1931-2008), who acquired the pen name of Faraz, came to be known as Ahmad Faraz as a poet. Even while he drew upon the traditional subjects of love and romance, he also wrote his age in his poetry with all its despairs and disappointments and produced some of the finest specimens of resistance poetry. Here are five couplets of Faraz that you may not have heard or read before:

I could sleep peacefully only when I cried bitterly last night And wept the venom of the heart through my tear-soaked eyes

I could sleep in peace only when I shed my bitter tears last night
And wept the venom of the heart through my tear-soaked eyes

How easy it was to die in your separation, my love Still it took a lifetime for me to reach my end

How easy it was to die in your separation, my love
Still it took a lifetime for me to reach my end

No longer stuck to your name as I was once Now I talk different when your name figures

No longer stuck to your name as I was once
Now I talk different when your name figures

I acknowledge the love of my townsmen Every hand I kissed turned out to be a dagger

I acknowledge the love of my townsmen
Every hand I kissed turned out to be a dagger

As I woke up, I saw all my dreams shattered Floating in the air like torn pieces of paper

As I woke up, I saw all my dreams shattered
Floating in the air like torn pieces of paper

Can you relate with any of these?