RETURN

JALIL ABD-AR-RAHMAN

Beloved, we returned home

As if we passed through hunger and cold;

Let your tender garden cut from us

Green leaves.

Awful is this city,

I don’t believe I must live in your heat and dust;

In that universal din,

In the grinding rumble,

Beloved, like two birds at night

Sparkled, as we fell asleep.

We love each other,

We co-religionists.

While the torch of life

Burns still in heart.

Translated from Russian by G. K. G. Joshi

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