Truth Poems
Faiz Ahmed Faiz translations by Michael R. Burch
by Michael R. Burch
Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984) was one of the most famous Urdu poets. In fact, his reputation is such that he has been called "the Poet of the East." His name is often spelled Faiz Ahmad Faiz in English. These are my modern English translations of Urdu poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
Last Night
by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
loose translation by Michael R. Burch
Last night, your memory stole into my heart—
as spring sweeps uninvited into barren gardens,
......
Of The Death Of Sir T.W. The Elder
by Henry Howard
Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest;
Whose heavenly gifts increased by disdain,
And virtue sank the deeper in his breast;
Such profit he by envy could obtain.
A head where wisdom mysteries did frame,
Whose hammers beat still in that lively brain
As on a stithy where that some work of fame
Was daily wrought, to turn to Britain's gain.
......
Creed
by Steve Turner
We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin.
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone,
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.
We believe in sex before during
and after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
......
The Art Of Drowning
by Billy Collins
I wonder how it all got started, this business
about seeing your life flash before your eyes
while you drown, as if panic, or the act of submergence,
could startle time into such compression, crushing
decades in the vice of your desperate, final seconds.
After falling off a steamship or being swept away
in a rush of floodwaters, wouldn't you hope
for a more leisurely review, an invisible hand
turning the pages of an album of photographs-
......
The Lovers Of The Poor
by Gwendolyn Brooks
arrive. The Ladies from the Ladies' Betterment League
Arrive in the afternoon, the late light slanting
In diluted gold bars across the boulevard brag
Of proud, seamed faces with mercy and murder hinting
Here, there, interrupting, all deep and debonair,
The pink paint on the innocence of fear;
Walk in a gingerly manner up the hall.
Cutting with knives served by their softest care,
Served by their love, so barbarously fair.
Whose mothers taught: You'd better not be cruel!
......
Perspective
by Jeff Bresee
It’s just a tiny flicker,
in my hand it seems to be
a single point of light
and yet it mesmerizes me.
Can’t help but wonder what’s inside,
what universe lies there?
It makes me feel like I’m a God
and there’s an earth somewhere
......
Can't Handle The Truth
by Jeff Bresee
We had the way sent from above
then kept the parts we like,
and handed back the rest and now
we don’t even think twice.
It’s like it never happened yeah,
just like it never even was,
but there is no escaping it.
It’s coming back because
......
Still Hoping
by Somali Mukherjee
Never go to ask someone
With sincere solidarity;
Fiery replies make us burn'
With serious frivolity.
None can help you, never will they;
This world's too complex;
Disgraced must be you to say,
If you do reflex.
......
Part the earth
by Jupiters Angel
No one held my hand
my feet walked on sand
circumstances that fancy to land.
What seems vicarious to one
do pray a centre stage for another
Yet we inherit one to other.
Who ads the color to the world
prelude in the scribes thouhgts
or was abuse that people hurled.
Twice crucified
......
Executioners of the Mind
by Igor Vykhovanets
Executioners of the Mind
Nikolay Kozyrev, 1937,
Arrested on a twisted claim:
For trying to steal the Volga West—
A “crime” to shame his name.
Stealing the Volga to the West?
The sentence—ten long years.
The nation’s best destroyed with lies,
......
