ABRAR AHMAD (Pakistan)

Dr. Abrar Ahmad was born in 1954. He has several collections of poems including Aakhari Din Say Pehley and Ghaflat Kay Brabar. His poems have been published in several leading magazines and periodicals. Dr. Ahmad has been Editor of Muntakhab Shairi, and Guest Editor of Adabiyat. He writes columns for The Herald, Karachi, and The News on Sunday, Lahore.

On every inch of earth
I can spare my heart, on which
You decide to walk
Till I can hear your steps
I can stand at the closed door
I can pull the clouds
Down to your yard
If you want, I can fill for you
I can dance
Without embarrassment
As I don’t know how to dance
I can laugh
Without happiness
I can replace your sorrows
With the remains of my joys
I can hold your tears in the storminess of my heart
Your restlessness
I can accommodate in my sleepless nights
Your fatigue can rest
In the ache of my being
I can hear iron chains
And can identify
Your torture with effort
I can endure
Hard times of callousness and unconnectedness
Smiling
By the way, I can fall after hitting your wall
And turning my face away from you, shedding tears
Behind a barren hill
I can become extinct
Without saying anything to anyone
I can stand with bated breath
In the scent of your bedroom
Till the automatic breaking of silken sleep
I can fill your heart
With joy or regret
If you want
I can fill color in your lips
I can grow flowers on earth
I can absorb your brilliant pride
In my humility
I can walk with you
When in the world
Nobody is ready for this
And before the eternal silence prevails
Upto the boundaries of the sky and borders of the earth
I can wait for you
And if you don’t want this
Then what can I do for you?

– Translated by Mahnaz Zainab