Translated from the Urdu by new 3QD writer Rafiq Kathwari:
That promised day
Written into tablets of pre eternity
It’s inevitable
We, too, will see
Colossal mountains of tyranny
Floating like wisps of cotton
The earth shaking and rattling
Beneath our stomping feet
Swords of lightning clashing
Over the heads of despots
Idols flung out
From sacred monuments
Crowns tossed into the air
Thrones demolished
And we the pure and the rejected
Seated on cushions.
Only the name of God will remain
Who is both absent and present
The witness, the witnessed
A cry will rend the sky
“I am Truth”
Which is you as well as I
And the beloved of God will reign
You I We Us
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
San Francisco, 1979
Rafiq Kathwari is a rebel poet and social entrepreneur who divides his time between his adopted home New York and his native Kashmir, where he empowers artisans. Poke him on Facebook.