Poems

There Was a Heart that Burnt Out: Light

Notes

Translators note: The theme of duality, life and death is strangely intertwined with the idea of light, hope amongst the other paradoxes in this poem. Although written in simple Urdu, the poem offers a challenge of translating these paradoxes through finding a parallel English word. The poet not only communicates with god, acknowledges a presence but also suffocates in the darkness and therefore desires ‘light'---or perhaps a space for expression, fresh air or life. Again, the rhyme scheme is ab cb db in the Urdu version of the poem.