Wo kehna ye tha kii – وہ کہنا یہ تھا کہ۔ – What was meant to be said is this – A Poem by Rabiya Fayaz
Rabiya Fayaz presents a poem that embodies a sustained interrogation of selfhood, addressing the reader through a series of insistently ethical questions that unsettle inherited measures of knowledge, achievement, and respectability. Written in transliterated Urdu and presented here with correspondi
Wo kehna ye tha kii
Khud ko agar nahi padd paye,
Kya likhna tera? Kya paddnaa tera?
Degriya le kar balay ho hazar,
Kya qalam tera? Kya waaz tera?
Jab khud kii khamoshi se ho bekhabar,
Kya akhbaar tera? Kya hangama tera?
Tujhe taraashe jab bheed kii kahani,
Kya nakhsha tera? Kya nazarya tera?
Peiruun mein pahne izzat kii zanjeer,
Kya safar hai tera? Kya tarana tera?
Lafz “Ishq” jaane bagair,
Kya muhabbat teri? Kya raqs tera?
Azaad tu kar bheed se khud ko.
Warna,
Kya haisiyat teri? Kya wajood tera?
وہ کہنا یہ تھا کہ۔
خود کو اگرنہیں پڑھ پائے،
کیا لکھنا تیرا ؟ کیاپڑھنا تیرا؟
ڈگریاں لیکر بھلے ہو ہزار،
کیا قلم تیرا؟ کیا واز تیرا؟
جب خود کی خاموشی سے ہو بے خبر،
کیا اخبار تیرا؟ کیا ہنگامہ تیرا؟
تجھے تراشے جب بھیڑ کی کہانی،
کیا نقشہ تیرا؟کیا نظریہ تیرا؟
پیروں میں پہنی عزت کی زنجیر،
کیا سفر ہے تیرا؟کیا ترانا تیرا؟
لفظ ’’عشق ‘‘ جانے بغیر،
کیا محبت تیری؟ کیا رقص تیرا؟
آزاد تو کر بھیڑسے خود کو،
ورنہ ،
کیا حیثیت تیری؟ کیا وجود تیرا؟
What was meant to be said is this:
If you could not read yourself,
What writing is yours? For what is your erudition?
Even with a thousand degrees in hand,
What weight does your pen hold? What does your sermon pronounce?
When you are ignorant about your own silence,
What is your newspaper for? For what do you sensationalize?
When the story carved by the crowd sculpts your personhood,
What is the domain of your being? What is your perspective and what of your voice?
With your feet tied by the chain of “honor”,
What is your life’s journey? What song sets the essence of your existence?
Without knowing the word “Ishq” (divine love),
What purpose does your love serve? What is your ceremonial dance for?
Free yourself from this crowd.
Otherwise,
What of your human dignity? What of the state of your being?