Puchhte Ho Toh Suno
If you really want to know how I live
Then listen, I’ll tell you how it is
Every night I am a mendicant for sleep
Till dawn tosses a few alms at me
Simply to breathe is not to live, my friend
The heart is in pain, the sleeve is wet
Dreams, like shattered glass, glitter
In my always wide open eyes
If you must know, then know
This is how the lovelorn spend their nights
Grief is my enemy, yet grief I always seek
Even a moment’s separation seems an eternity
I am an essence in search of its centre
Am I at the end or have I just begun?
The actress Meena Kumari’s only outing into the world as a poetess while she lived is contained in an album titled “I write, I recite” released in 1965. The pieces are in her own voice against a musical score composed by the composer Khayyam. Her voice, with its flawless Urdu diction and its mesmerizing depths and sheer range, does great justice to the poetry in these renditions. Her poetry has been transcreated here in English by Manjul Bajaj.
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