“Flower
Show”
Flowers and flowers,
As far as the eyes can see:
Orange, Sky blue, Pink, Lavender, Yellow, Violet.
How many proficient hands and delicate fingers have
Arranged the fashionable
And decorative blooms
For applause and praise by all.
No one thinks about
How each individual flower was severed from its
branch
And commenced on this journey of beautification.
What sort of pain did it go through?
Likewise, we are poets
Who by the tip of a pen
Bloom fragrant flowers of intellect
By the brilliance of our imagination,
Polishing the face of time.
There will come a time
When one’s anthology
Will sit upon the bookshelves made of marble and
ebony.
Soft, delicate fingers unaware of the effects of
the verses,
Will arrange them.
Many luminous eyes shall praise the arrangement,
Unaware of the truth that, during those creative
journeys,
How much pain was endured by us poets!
Parveen Shakir (24 November 1952 - 26 December 1994)
Translated from the Urdu by M.S. Alverston, 02/21/11.
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