پس چہ بايد کرد

© Iftikhar Arif
Aus: Written in a Season of Fear
Karachi: Ameena Saiyid, Oxford University Press, 2005
Audioproduktion: 2006, M. Mechner / Literaturwerkstatt

So what do we do now?

After dreams of cool houses and iced water,
People, distressed by the heat of Fate City,
Drift towards such frozen zones
Where both blood and breath turn to ice
And eyes destined to be wild are frozen,
The tempestuous sea of the unruly heart is frozen,
Even the warm memories of close friends are ice
Every name, every sound, every face — ice,
Every coin from the mint of frozen dreams — ice.
And now I ponder; day and night, thinking
That fire better than dreaming of cool houses and iced
                                                                         water,
That fire whose flames keep pen and paper alive
A fire which every moment keeps all the sufferings and
                                        every generation alive,
And where we still appear alive even when turned to dust.

Translated by Rainer Kimming