Translating a Few Lines by Rehman Rahi
(With a news peg in parenthesis)
Melting snow
a breeze,
(a car explodes,
flesh and bones
litter the road,
the bomber
spliced
to a metal chunk.)
The breeze is a spy.
Here, can’t even
Wailaikum
someone,
and they speak
of dialogue.
To live,
people die.
O Spring
be a witness:
Dumbstruck,
we sing.
—Kashmir, 14 February 2019
Rehman Rahi, b.1925, recipient of several top literary awards in India, is the greatest living poet of the Kashmiri language. He has published five collections of poems and seven books of literary criticism. Rahi lives in Srinagar.
Translated from the original Kashmiri by Rafiq Kathwari / @brownpundit