A poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz

Translated from the Urdu by new 3QD writer Rafiq Kathwari:

Faiz WE WILL SEE

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.