چک پھیری

© Iftikhar Arif
Extrait de: Written in the Season of Fear
Karachi: Ameena Saiyid, Oxford University Press, 2005
Production audio: 2006, M. Mechner / Literaturwerkstatt

Memories

From the lanes of my childhood, glass from ball-shattered
                        windows now pierces my eyes.
During the long burning noons of summer, my childish
                                     hands ravaged bird-nests
While homeless birds racked the air with cries, and now
             in my long evenings of homelessness
They follow me into the nightmares of hell
Into those broken days, those shattered nights
My own daggers sink into my chest
While animated faces die in the lap of flickering time.

Translated by Rainer Kimming