Never heard before couplets of Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Faiz Ahmad Faiz was among the most celebrated and popular poets of Urdu. He faced political repression for his revolutionary views. He is acknowledged as a torchbearer of progressivism and modernism in Urdu poetry. Here are five couplets of Faiz that you may not have heard of or read before. You may read them below:

Love-afflicted I lay, why don’t you bring me a cure

What a healer are you, heal me for I adjure

I’m a lazy one, I’m not a Farhad
Who else in this city of dead than I

One may, or may not get, the desired wine in hell
But one would get rid of the counselor at least

Life is but a poor man’s cloak where one
Keeps sewing it with patches of pain

He’s coming; he’ll come; he’s on his way
Awake did I stay all the night for my day

Ishq-e-Meer Taqi Meer (1723-1810)

From chronicling the day-to-day experiences of life to exploring issues in philosophy, Meer’s poetry touches upon almost every aspect of being. When it comes to describing the matters of love, he stands unparalleled. It is said that Meer used to go wild at the sight of the moon, as he had an illusion that face of his separated beloved was reflected in the moon. As Ahmad Faraz has aptly put:

Aashiqi mein Meer jaise khwaab mat dekha karo
Baawle hojaaoge mahtaab mat dekha karo

 

Here are some soulful couplets of Meer where he defines love.

Love is beloved, love is lover
Love, in sum, has fallen for love

Love, oh Meer is but a heavy stone
Too burdening for your weakened bone

Where to find the wandering lovers, to the wind I asked
A handful of dust in the breeze did it cast

In the beginning, a burning flame in love I was
At the end, only a handful of dust I am