Poet: Ahmed Faraz
Translation: Faraz Jamil Kakar
My love..
Even if
You have a grudge
Please come back
Even if to hurt me
Even if..
To leave again
But please comeback
These explanations to the world
Are so difficult
Even if
Our terms
Are not the same
Even if
For the sake of formality
But please come back
Is it the version of Bandish hi sahi…. wonderful and apt translation
Yes.. the first two couplets of Ahmed Faraz’s poem ”Ranjish hi sahi..”. Coke Studion released a remix of an old song based on these lyrics. I was listening to it and attempted the translation. Faraz, the poet of the lyrics, was very popular in Pakistan especially during the restless decades of 1970s and 80s. So popular was his poetry that many millennials in his country were named after him. Myself included.
As students, we grew up reading, reciting and listening to his poems in our school and college campuses even though they were never part of the syllabus.
Delightful in its disarming simplicity of expression.
The general reader who might be unfamiliar with the author’s exemplary scholastic endeavours will find this translation to be an engaging and delightful rendition.