POETRY

— POEMS 𝒃𝒚 AMRITA PRITAM

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LIGHT

 

In this night of separation

There is some light

The flash of the memories glimmered too.

 An incident, a wound and a thing

Remained in the heart.

At night, starlight smashed everything

From the eyesight, the sun disappeared.

The odor of the dew is still,

Coming from the moon.

A drop of your love

Also mingled in it

Therefore, I drank up

All the bitterness of life.

***

 

KUMARI

 

When I had stepped

On your threshold

I was not single

But I was twofold

One was virgin and other, married.

Just because of your desire

I had killed one

As I committed a murder

 In such a way….

These are often legal

But their insult is illegal.

So, I too had drunk

A cup of insult

And then the next moment

When I saw my bloody hands

I washed those forcefully

As all wash

But as I came in front of mirror

I shuddered with fear.

***

 

 

GEM OF SNAKE

 

There was a thick forest of mind

Knowledge was like a lightened tree,

 The snake’s gem of inner self

Glittering on the forehead

And spreading its hood.

The snake charmer came with wide steps Playing bassoon of Ishq

Having snake pot of hope in his hands.

The fresh milk of love

The snake of self-found in its pot

The snake charmer sits in a crossing

Playing the bassoon and dancing snakes

And sometimes put snake

Around his neck.

The music is playing

But the watchers are weeping

All people came to see the feat.

***

 

 

JOURNEY

 

I don’t know

How is the ‘boat’ of today?

I even don’t know

How will be ‘island’ of tomorrow?

But I don’t know so

Love is a passenger

Who has to leave alone!

In this boat.

From the internal water

A wave has risen

And journey is tied

With the feet of wave.

A ray says daily

Come with me

We are to go

To the home of sun

I don’t know

How is ‘boat’ of today?

***

 

 

MY ADDRESS

 

Today,

I have erased my house number

Removed away the name of the street

 On the corner

As well cleared identification of each road.

 

All numbers and signs have been removed

Still, if you have to find me

Knock at each door

Of every city and each country.

It’s a secret, a quest

Whenever, you see any flash of a gloomy soul

Then consider it’s my home.

***

 

(Translated from Punjabi by Hamza Hassan Sheikh)

****

LIGHT

In this night of separation

There is some light

The flash of the memories glimmered too.

 An incident, a wound and a thing

Remained in the heart.

At night, starlight smashed everything

From the eyesight, the sun disappeared.

The odor of the dew is still,

Coming from the moon.

A drop of your love

Also mingled in it

Therefore, I drank up

All the bitterness of life.

                                  ***

KUMARI


When I had stepped

On your threshold

I was not single

But I was twofold

One was virgin and other, married.

Just because of your desire

I had killed one

As I committed a murder

 In such a way….

These are often legal

But their insult is illegal.

So, I too had drunk

A cup of insult

And then the next moment

When I saw my bloody hands

I washed those forcefully

As all wash

But as I came in front of mirror

I shuddered with fear.

                                 ***


GEM OF SNAKE


There was a thick forest of mind

Knowledge was like a lightened tree,

 The snake’s gem of inner self

Glittering on the forehead

And spreading its hood.

The snake charmer came with wide steps Playing bassoon of Ishq

Having snake pot of hope in his hands.

The fresh milk of love

The snake of self-found in its pot

The snake charmer sits in a crossing

Playing the bassoon and dancing snakes

And sometimes put snake

Around his neck.

The music is playing

But the watchers are weeping

All people came to see the feat.

                                 ***


JOURNEY


I don’t know

How is the ‘boat’ of today?

I even don’t know

How will be ‘island’ of tomorrow?

But I don’t know so

Love is a passenger

Who has to leave alone!

In this boat.

From the internal water

A wave has risen

And journey is tied

With the feet of wave.

A ray says daily

Come with me

We are to go

To the home of sun

I don’t know

How is ‘boat’ of today?

                                 ***


MY ADDRESS


Today,

I have erased my house number

Removed away the name of the street

 On the corner

As well cleared identification of each road.

All numbers and signs have been removed

Still, if you have to find me

Knock at each door

Of every city and each country.

It’s a secret, a quest

Whenever, you see any flash of a gloomy soul

Then consider it’s my home.

                             ***

(Translated from Punjabi by Hamza Hassan Sheikh)

                  **** 

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Authors

  • Amrit Kaur, popularly known as Amrita Pritam (31 August 1919 – 31 October 2005), born in Gujranwala, Punjab in British India — the only child of her parents Kartar Singh Hitkari, a poet and scholar of Braj Bhasha, and Raj Bibi, was an Indian novelist, essayist and poet, who wrote in Punjabi and Hindi. Her literary work was over 100 books comprising of poetry, fiction, biographies, essays, a collection of Punjabi folk songs and an autobiography. All of her work has translated into several Indian, Pakistani and foreign languages. Amrita Pritam is best remembered for her poignant elegy “𝘈𝘫𝘫 𝘢𝘢𝘬𝘩𝘢’𝘯 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘩 𝘯𝘶” (“Ode to Waris Shah” — who was a sufi poet of Punjabi of the 18th century). As a novelist, her most noted work was 𝘗𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢𝘳 (“The Skeleton”, 1950). When the sub-continent was partitioned into two independent states of Pakistan and India, she migrated from Lahore (where she and her father had moved after the death of her mother when Amrita was only 11 years old) to India but she remained equally popular throughout her life in both the countries for her brilliant contribution to the literature. She was awarded the 𝘗𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘮 𝘚𝘩𝘳𝘪 in 1969, Jananpith Award, 1982 for her work 𝘒𝘢𝘨𝘩𝘢𝘻 𝘛𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘷𝘢𝘴 (“The Paper and the Canvas”), and the 𝘗𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘮 𝘝𝘪𝘣𝘩𝘶𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘯 — India’s second highest civilian award — in 2004. She was also recipient of the highest literary award 𝘚𝘢𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘺𝘢 𝘈𝘬𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘪 Award, 1956 for her remarkable long poem Sunehade, making her the first and the only woman to have been awarded for a work in Punjabi. Amrita was awarded to the “Immortals of Literature” for lifetime achievement.

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  • Hamza Hassan Sheikh is a short-story writer, novelist, and poet, who is published in anthologies and yearbooks in China, Taiwan, UK, USA, India and Australia. He is a PhD scholar in Film Studies at the University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Malaysia. He is an author of 15 books, 8 in English and 7 in Urdu. His books have been published in Pakistan, India and USA. Hamza Hassan Sheikh is first ever English novelist and short-story writer from his province KPK. He had received many national and international awards from Pakistan, Albania, Lebanon and Kazakhstan. He has visited Iran, India, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, UAE, Malaysia and Romania in his literary pursuit. Hamza Hassan Sheikh has also translated work of many international writers into Urdu and Pakistani Literature from Urdu, Punjabi, Saraiki, Hindko and Pushto into English. He has published a book — “𝑺𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕” — of translation of 50 poems of Amrita Pritam from Punjabi. He is also a participating speaker on different TV channels of Pakistan.

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Saleem shahzad
1 year ago

Beautiful poems

Fraz
1 year ago

Brilliant piece of poetry by the great Amrita Pritam. Her poetry is like her name.

Iftikhar Ahmad
1 year ago

Amrita Pritam is one of the few important women writers in the last century in Indian sub continent. One can feel the anguish born our of partition and love is a strong underlying theme throughout her poetry. She deserves to be communicated to the larger body of humanity. The translator has made a substantial effort to justify this task.

[…] To read poems by Amrita Pritam, Please click here […]

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