گھاس تو مجھ جیسی ہے
گھاس بھی مجھ جیسی ہے
پاؤں تلے بچھ کر ہی زندگی کی مراد پاتی ہے
مگر یہ بھیگ کر کس بات گواہی بنتی ہے
شرمساری کی آنچ کی
کہ جذبے کی حدت کی
گھاس بھی مجھ جیسی ہے
ذرا سر اٹھانے کے قابل ہو
تو کاٹنے والی مشین
اسے مخمل بنانے کا سودا لیے
ہموار کرتی رہتی ہے
عورت کو بھی ہموار کرنے کے لیے
تم کیسے کیسے جتن کرتے ہو
نہ زمیں کی نمو کی خواہش مرتی ہے
نہ عورت کی
میری مانو تو وہی پگڈنڈی بنانے کا خیال درست تھا
جو حوصلوں کی شکستوں کی آنچ نہ سہہ سکیں
وہ پیوند زمیں ہو کر
یوں ہی زور آوروں کے لیے راستہ بناتے ہیں
مگر وہ پر کاہ ہیں
گھاس نہیں
The Grass Is Like Me
You know, the grass is like me
It’s true nature revealed
When trodden under foot
But when drenched
Does it bear witness
To burning disgrace
Or blazing fury?
Yes, the grass is like me
It lifts its head
Only to be continually sheared
Into flat velvet by the frenzied machine
How many ways do you have to flatten a woman?
But the earth
And women continue to rise up
If you ask me, you had the right idea
A footpath was spot on
Those who can’t endure
Are patched down into the scorched earth
Merely straw
A path for the oppressors
Not grass
You know, grass like me!
For The Grass Too, Is Like Me
I tell you, the grass and I are alike
It is only by laying down for feet to tred over it
That life’s intentions for it become known
But when it is drenched
Is it a testament to
Feeling ablaze with disgrace
Or the burning intensity of emotion?
The grass too, is like me
Just as it becomes capable of lifting its head
a machine in a black-bile frenzy to transform it into soft velvet
Flattens it continually
Woman, too you strive to flatten
In so many different ways
Neither the ground’s wish to live dies
Nor Womans
If you listen to me, that idea you had?
To create a footpath was the right course of action
Those who cannot endure the scorch of defeated morale
Become patched into the ground
In this way, creating a path for the opressors
But they are merely straw
Not the grass
The grass is like me!
As Sascha Akhtar, our guest translator explained, Kishwar Naheed is an extremely influential figure in Pakistani poetry. Naheed is a feminist poet who, for many, as the personal figure who most emphatically defies the patriarchal iniquities that exist in her society. This poem, suggested by the poet herself, is, we were told, characteristic in many ways. It is politically engaged and direct, impassioned and uncompromising, yet uses very simple colloquial language throughout. As we translated it, we tried to maintain this directness of expression as well as the irony (‘If you ask me, you had the right idea’) and metaphorical extremes.
Edward Doegar, Commissioning Editor