Each heart carries on its plam (Har koi dil ki hatheli pe)

Translated poem:

Each heart here carries on its palm a desert bare,
Who to quench, who to abandon in thirst’s hair?

Who in the world sticks to a bond in perpetuity?
Oh frenemy, in the hands of God, I leave your care.

Like I – not even a bit, if someone bears your name.
One must resemble you to even attempt such a dare.

How crazy a heart is to seek such a person’s care,
One who won’t have me for self, nor leave me spare.

No less is here a greed of worship than a thirst for gold,
True hermit is far from belief as from the world’s snare.

Don’t laugh this much at recluse and their lonely state,
Wish I here, may you too have a taste of such despair.

Is this contentment, is it obedience, or a love’s flare?
How’s ‘Faraz’ happy as long as kept, no matter where.

— Dedicated to hermits…

Original poem:

Har koi dil ki hatheli pe hai sahra rakkhe
kis ko sairab kare wo kise pyasa rakkhe

Umr bhar kaun nibhata hai talluq itna
ai meri jaan ke dushman tujhe allah rakkhe

Hum ko achchha nahin lagta koi hamnam tera
koi tujh sa ho to phir nam bhi tujh sa rakkhe

Dil bhi pagal hai ki us shaKHs se wabasta hai
jo kisi aur ka hone de na apna rakkhe

Kam nahin tama-e-ibaadat bhi to hirs-e-zar see
faqr to wo hai ki jo din na duniya rakkhe

Hans na itna bhi faqiron ke akele-pan par
ja KHuda meri tarah tujh ko bhi tanha rakkhe

Ye qanaat hai itaat hai ki chahat hai ‘faraaz’
hum to raazi hain wo jis haal mein jaisa rakkhe

— Ahmed Faraz

Thanks to Miss Sarah Awan for introducing me to this Ghazal from her diary whose entry dated “02-04-2000”: