Friday, August 2, 2013

Sahir Ludhianvi (1921-1980) "Twofold World”, p.462, translated from the Hindi-Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates.


Sahir Ludhianvi (1921-1980) "Twofold World”, p.462, translated from the Hindi-Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates. 


This world is duplicitous, dyed twofold

On one hand, it is draped in silk

But naked and bare.

On one hand, the price of body is cheaper than bread

Clod of earth, but fourfold gold:

Reddish, yellowish, greenish, and whitish.

This world is duplicitous, dyed twofold

One half-face showered with splendor

One half-face pierced with lancet

Half of the body is covered with sores from Hansen’s disease

Half of the body is covered in diamonds.

One-half of the home is prosperous

One-half of the home is impoverished.

This world is duplicitous, dyed twofold

Adorning foreheads with crowns on one hand

But transporting baskets of filth atop their heads.

Pleading for alms with the right hand

Begging for charity with the other hand.

Running free meal mess halls on one hand

But begging for alms with the other.

This world is double-dealing, dyed twofold.

As a concourse of humanness, we must not have to brook

These streams of pain… and pleasure as well.

As humanity, the division of capital must be redone anew.

As long as there are class divisions,

Higher and lower standings with a diminishing middle ground,

Every sheathing will remain misshapen.

This world is two-faced, dyed twofold

On one hand, it is draped in silk

But naked and bare as well.

Sahir Ludhianvi (1921-1980) "Twofold World”, p.462, translated from the Hindi-Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston & Associates. 

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