—— POEM 𝒃𝒚 Nasir Karim

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A blood vessel weeps, countless syllables wounded,

Day and night unravel from the fluttering eyelids.

If I were to write, what verses should bloom for you?

Perhaps you sense,

When solitude congeals instead of ink on paper,

How futile it is to etch or leave it bare!

When an obstruction shadows the path of rays,

The sunrise,

Dawn’s embrace,

The unfolding daylight,

All lose their significance.

Preferences and aversions—what matter do they hold?

These are mere utterances,

Much like saying water feels sublime when rivers flow by.

Ask the soil tethered to the riverbanks about the throes of love,

In the love of this water,

How arduous it is to uproot and venture to foreign lands,

Never to find the familiar banks again.

That’s all I have to inscribe for you,

For those who are lost here,

Rarely find their way back again!

….

(Translated from Urdu by Dr. Bushra Shoukat)

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