Daughter + Mother = Carrie + Debbie & "A Genuine Love Poem"

"A Genuine Love Poem" by Parveen Shakir, translated from the Urdu by Manfred Spencer Alverston

May your eyes go on twinkling forever,

May your lifetime go by joyfully.

If I’m unable to see you, I won’t become heavyhearted,

Wherever you are, may you go on like a shining star.

I long for your life ’til the day of resurrection,

May you flow eternally like the wind.

My fate’s star shatters and scatters,

On a dark night, your path is always illuminated galactically.

Let me sit in your umbra for a little while.

And then I can go along in the scorching sun.

This fire of passion will keep me illuminated.

May you be the flame that passes through my being.

To have you as my final scope,

That one afterimage will do.

Our name must have been written somewhere,

This terra cotta woman- I- continuing to pass through a lunar journey.

If I’m unable to accompany you,

May your journey still go on in midst of roseate dreams.

I forgot about the passing time when I placed my head on your chest,

May the thought of swiftly flowing time go on.

Parveen Shakir, translated from the Urdu by M.S. Alverston