1 The Alien Eyes

2 The Alien Eyes

THE ALIEN EYES

3 The Alien Eyes

4 The Alien Eyes

THE ALIEN EYES

By

Fakhira Batool

Recipient of:

i. Frang Bardhi Literary Prize 2014

(Galaktika Poetike ATUNIS, Albania).

ii. The International Best Poet 2013

(IPTRC China)

Translation

By

Muhammad

Shanazar

5 The Alien Eyes

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First Edition: November, 2014

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Title: The Alien Eyes

Poetess: Fakhira Batool

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6 The Alien Eyes

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DEDICATED

Dedicated to all women of the

world whom Love broke and made

them to hang on the Cross with

broken shattered pieces of hearts.

7 The Alien Eyes

Fakhira Batool

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9 The Alien Eyes

Contents

Preface

11

Poems

1. You Forgot Me at Last 19 2. I Have To Say Something 20 3. Have You Ever Thought 21 4. Let Us Compose a Poem 22 5. Make a Search 23 6. Yes I Am Friendless 24 7. Love: A Gift 25 8. The Wall of Sand 26 9. Separation Became Indispensable 27 10. Defeat 28 11. What Is Love 29 12. The Moon Put Over The Clouds 31 13. Shamshan Ghot 32 14. What Do You Seek 34 15. The Island That Is Named Love 35 16. It Is Time To Come Into Senses 37 17. No Longer With Me 38 18. Suicide 39 19. Had There Been No Defeat 41 20. Separation Weeps 42 21. You Never Loved 43 22. If Love Gets Annoyed 45 23. Be Heeded 47 24. Write Not On Waters 49 25. A Tale Has So Many Modes 50

10 The Alien Eyes

26. I Am A Mother 52 27. December When You Turn Again 54 28. Do Not Let Me Annoyed 57 29. Poke Not The Ashes 58 30. Bring Me Back My Eyes 59 31. The End 61 32. Why Do You Sojourn In My Dreams? 62 33. Let Me Talk To The Wind 64 34. The Season Of Separation 66 35. My Love Your Are My Faith 67 36. Pity 69 37. Let Us Go To The Beach 70 38. An Astrologer 72 39. A Princess Resembles So 73 40. Love: A Miracle 75 41. An Old Belief 77 42. This Exhausted Moon 78 43. Hear Me! 79 44. If I Become Annoyed 80 45. You Are Fallen In Love 81 46. Let Us Suppose 82 47. Forgetfulness 83 48. You Have Cast Me Off 84 49. I Am Fond Of You 85 50. Let Us Confess 87 51. The Village Of Deceptions 88 52. We Are Hearts And Hands 89 53. ‘Love’ Is Not A Vain Word 90 54. Modes Of Love 91 55. The Alien Eyes 92

11 The Alien Eyes

56. Why Has God Created Those Lips? 93 57. Seasons Remain Not The Same 94 58. What A Small Poem It Will Be! 96 59. Love Is Like Sand 97 60. Achievement 98 61. I Have Been Enveloped… 99 62. On Love Half Realized 100 63. It Is Possible 101 64. Believe In My Oath 102 65. You Claim To Be True 103 66. Love Gets Crushed 104 67. Destiny 105 68. Bring Me Back First The Season ... 106 69. A Cry Yet Remains Behind 107 70. Today Is Your Birthday 108 71. Your Tone Is Twisting 109 72. If You Had Been Faithful 110

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13 The Alien Eyes

Preface

It is my profound pleasure as well as

good fortune that I discovered Fakhira

Batool a poetess of genuine heart and

sentiments; her genius, truthfulness of

emotions, maturity of thought and

adherence to the noble cause and

presenting herself as a representative of

women-hood compelled me to translate

her poetry into English so that it may be

read in the English Speaking Countries.

Fakhira Batool dealt with a variety of

subjects but nucleus of all is the same;

oppression, cruelty, discrimination and

indifference to the existence of Woman in

the world. She is born a poet-advocate

and pleaded well the case of her gender

in her poems, she has expressed the

delicate emotions of the true lovers but

the love, sincerity, purity and innocence

of the female partner ever remain

dominant in her poetry.

When you depart, go afar from me,

A dark shawl of depression

14 The Alien Eyes

From somewhere,

Who knows, how befalls on my head.

Fakhira Batool is well aware of pangs of

separation and pleasures of the union,

how different moments and segments of

time exert indescribable pleasing

influence and shadows of depression on

the fair-sex. Her eyes are open, ears are

very sensitive, she can even see the

sparks and hear the sound of emotions

running through blood. Fakhira Batool

lives amid the beautiful surroundings

and the world of romance created by

herself, she is not an escapist, she

mingles that created charm into hard

and cumbersome realities of life. Every

woman of the world passes through the

same sensation or fear lest her lover or

life partner should part; Fakhira Batool

gives expression to those general

feelings:

Hearken!

My heart goes through a fear

Lest you should forget me,

15 The Alien Eyes

Lest it should happen in such a season.

O! My love,

This was that I said to you,

But happened the same

You forgot me at last.

The romantic world that Fakhira Batool

creates is not less imaginative than that

of created by any English romantic poet;

she has all seasons in her inner-self

rather the whole colorful universe that

is why she has a large variety of images

to illustrate e.g., despised season, shawl

of depression, lamps of tears … quivering

edges of the lashes, drizzle of Monsoon,

brilliance inward and out all around,

bowl of chest, tinkle of the petals,

fondness of the flower fly and whisper

of the breeze etc. are the poetic images

which depict richness of the poetic mind.

As it has been indicated that Fakhira

Batool is an advocate of womanhood;

she does not possess a soft corner for

her opposite gender, it might be the

influence of some autobiographical

16 The Alien Eyes

elements, she has is of the opinion that

male-sex is rigid and stubborn, in one of

her poems, ‘The Wall of Sand’ she

expresses:

If it falls,

Let it fall hundreds of times,

It is useless

To make him understand,

For he shall make the wall of sand.

The poetic language Fakhira Batool

writes is figurative, it is replete with

similes and metaphors, the words seem to

be multi-coloured gems of a string, they

may lose their significance if go astray.

There is the flow of words depicting

sounds, smells and colours; different

shades of light embellish more the

expression and enhance more

mysteriously poetic influence on the

readers mind. In her poetry she goes

through an experience of some

confessions which can be noticed

17 The Alien Eyes

between the lines, she does not spare

herself while she regards others to be

imperfect beings of the world:

All move with no gain; but with pain,

Who will make out here the fellow

beings?

Here all chatter their own matters,

Everywhere there is helter-skelter,

Ah! Here we all are felons.

There are the repeated references of

unresponsiveness and callousness of the

male sex in her poetry. The poetry of

Fakhira Batool goes around one

dominant emotion which is still to be

revealed: the emotion of Love, she

regards It the most beautiful sentiment

of the universe without which the world

and life lose their meanings and

significance. She says, “ Love is a gift, It is

fragrance of the roses, shyness,

delicacy, perplexity, and tinkle of the

petals, fondness of the flower fly, silence

of the airs;…the glimpse of moon, the

18 The Alien Eyes

shine of stars, heat of the sun, whisper of

the breeze…”. It is very creative and

gorgeous delineation of Love: an

irrefutable reality of the universe.

Fakhira Batool though lives in multitude

of the people, yet she has a feeling of

loneliness, she thinks herself friendless,

it is because she does not find human

beings corresponding her thoughts and

mind; it is undoubtedly true that men of

sensitive nature suffer more in the world

than those who have common and

general level of feelings, sensitivity and

compassion.

Yes, I am friendless,

Yes, he showed me a dream,

Then made me a victim of his tyranny;

When the train of my tears broke,

They brimmed the bowl of my chest;

And when the Sun went asleep,

Someone burnt with out fire.

19 The Alien Eyes

Fakhira Batool is a poetess who believes

in destiny, in the roe of fate and chance,

she is of the opinion that some secret

force works against efforts of Man, life

is largely ruled by appearance and

disappearance of the elements of fate and

chance, man or woman is utterly in the

claws of fate, he or she is bound to go

trough the predestined channel of

catastrophe:

I was just to step ahead

At the very moment,

Address of the destination

Fell from the hand, and then lost,

At the same moment the fate slept,

While She was about to awaken,

So separation became indispensable.

Whatever is predestined, she is bold

enough to embrace it; she does not want

20 The Alien Eyes

to suffer through the twinge of curiosity

and delay and so hastens to reach the

end by devastating and perishing her life:

If separation is destined,

Why it is being delayed,

We will perform it now,

We will depart very moment.

Fakhira Batool while dwelling in the

world of romance and imagination does

not break her relation from the reality

and terrestrial world, she is not in

favour of chasing shadows and vain

ambitions as she is well aware of the

plight of those who run after the

illusions:

O! Friend do not cherish frivolous hopes

No one gets flowers here but thorns

Do not run behind the shadows,

O! My friend.

It is time to come into senses.

21 The Alien Eyes

The poetry of Fakhira Batool is

purposeful, it emits spirituality from its

lines, and she is of the opinion that every

object is a victim to decay and in fact the

splendour, glory, power and marvellous

beauty of Man in this world are

momentary and fleeting and she advises

in a very effective style:

O! Friend these gallant eyes,

These pretty limbs of body,

This splendid structure,

On which the world is astonished,

Are ordained to be decomposed.

A lot will be revealed about Fakhira

Batool’s poetry in the descending years

as time itself is the best judge to establish

someone’s status in the hierarchy of

poets. I deeply appreciate her for writing

worth-valuing poetry when majority of

the poets are toddling on the trodden

path. ‘The Alien Eyes’ will prove itself a

precious addition in English Literature; I

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regard it worth-including in the reading

courses at different levels of education

form Intermediate to Master. I am well

aware that we neglect the poets in their

lives, and adore them after their deaths,

and only a few get recognition in their

lives, I think it is injustice to the

intellectuals, therefore, I request the

high ranking officials of Govt. of

Pakistan as well as Educationists of the

country to patronize her officially, this

will add to the prestige of the country

and nation.

Muhammad Shanazar

You Forgot Me at Last

23 The Alien Eyes

In the despised season,

In the dripping drops of blood,

Only awakens sadness.

I read somewhere

Or heard someone,

It happens that this sadness

Being indifferent and heedless

Nips all of sudden,

Delicate buds of memories.

Hearken!

My heart goes through a fear

Lest you should forget me,

Lest it should happen in such a season.

O! My love,

This was that I said to you,

But happened the same

You forgot me at last.

24 The Alien Eyes

I Have To Say Something

I have to say something,

When you depart, go afar from me,

A dark shawl of depression

From somewhere,

Who knows, how befalls on my head.

25 The Alien Eyes

Have You Ever Thought

Have you ever thought,

Why the people migrate

Leaving behind their dwellings;

And prefer to leave for the world

unexplored.

Have you ever thought

How hundreds of lamps of tears enkindle

On the quivering edges of the lashes.

26 The Alien Eyes

Let Us Compose a Poem

Let us compose a poem,

In the drizzle of Monsoon,

Or in a small valley,

On the moments,

Which spent accompanying you,

Or

On innocent sentiments,

Or

On your brilliant eyes,

Or

On my quivering eyes,

Let us compose a poem.

27 The Alien Eyes

Make a Search

Search in the world of eyes,

Yes those eyes,

Where your reflection lives,

Where the moon and the star shimmer,

Where flickers a real lamp of true love,

Beholding of which descends

Brilliance inward and out all around.

Search in the world of eyes,

Perhaps you might find the eyes,

But be heeded,

Lest in search of those eyes,

You should lose your own.

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29 The Alien Eyes

Yes I Am Friendless

Yes, I am friendless,

Yes, he showed me a dream,

Then made me a victim of his tyranny;

When the train of my tears broke,

They brimmed the bowl of my chest;

And when the Sun went asleep,

Someone burnt with out fire.

On all sides around there surges blood,

All move with no gain; but with pain,

Who will make out here the fellow

beings?

Here all chatter their own matters,

Everywhere there is helter-skelter,

Ah! Here we all are felons.

30 The Alien Eyes

Love: A Gift

Love is a gift

For the Special Ones,

It is fragrance of the roses,

Shyness,

Delicacy,

Perplexity,

And tinkle of the petals

Fondness of flower fly,

Silence of the airs;

It contains,

The glimpse of moon,

The shine of stars,

Heat of the sun,

And whisper of the breeze;

31 The Alien Eyes

Love is a gift,

For the special ones.

The Wall of Sand

If it falls,

Let it fall hundreds of times,

It is useless

To make him understand,

For he shall make the wall of sand.

Sand- made is my home,

The rain is obstinate too,

It seems as if,

This will work a wonder at last.

32 The Alien Eyes

Separation Became

Indispensable

Very brief is the tale of separation,

Strange was my plight,

I was just to step ahead

At the very moment,

Address of the destination

Fell from the hand, and then lost,

At the same moment the fate slept,

While She was about to awaken,

So separation became indispensable.

33 The Alien Eyes

Defeat

If separation is destined,

Why it is being delayed;

Let us go asunder

At the very moment,

You will close the eyes

At the very moment,

And I shall place my hand

Upon my heart,

And you will say to me,

Detached are the paths,

Asunder are the destinations;

But be patient! Be patient!

34 The Alien Eyes

And listen to me my love,

If separation is destined,

Why it is being delayed,

We will perform it now,

We will depart very moment.

What Is Love

Love exits since beginning!

Beyond the string of words,

But is a reality.

Love in the firmament of thoughts,

In the guise of clouds,

Always flutters, soars high,

Sometimes contracted into the drops of

rain,

Impinges, scatters on the land of heart.

Taking delicacies from the breeze,

And fragrance from the roses,

Colours from the rainbow,

Light from the stars,

35 The Alien Eyes

Weave a beautiful Anchal,

And from the same Anchal adorns,

Mud-made houses.

Love throws into trials,

Sometimes becoming poetry,

Enhances deference of the words,

Sometimes becoming a tune,

Hums gradually,

It becomes an incarnated eye,

After getting the beloved one,

A strange touch it becomes,

In the alley of the most adored.

Who knows what kind

Of magical utterances it utters,

And hurriedly descends into the close

eyes

Of someone with out a knock,

And makes a residence.

Love smiles,

36 The Alien Eyes

It is a fragrance,

Always abodes in the breath of blossoms,

Such a light it is,

As it turns into moon the dark nights,

And permanent pang it contains,

That has Indescribable tang,

The definition of Love is that it is Love.

The Moon Put Over The Clouds

One night The Moon

From the assemblage of stars,

Descended on the roof.

He spoke to me steadily whispering,

“With deserted eyes,

Come ahead and touch me.”

I was afraid, I was shy,

And addressed thus

“How it may happen?”

37 The Alien Eyes

When He insisted on being touched,

I wished,

Going ahead I should touch it,

Bu till then,

The Moon went behind the clouds.

Shamshan Ghot

When the Sun hides countenance

Behind the black shawl,

All of sudden the city of night

Awakes with a poisonous turn,

It begins to glimmer like heavenly bodies,

And on the measured beats of drums,

And tinkles of anklets,

Begin to sway in the air, the tinted

Anchals.

38 The Alien Eyes

Geeta, Roshi, Amereeta, and Chanda

dancers,

In the herd of obstinate jingles

Dance as step feet of a peacock,

On the tones Tha Tha, Thi Thi,

They strut, twist in pride,

And after showing,

The glimpse of heartiness,

Beautify and elegance,

Making the bodies bows and arrows,

And embellishing lips with fake smiles,

Dance amid the rain

Of brand new currency noted.

There surmounts all around

The noise of unabashed guests,

The chief-whore chewing the betel leaves,

Glints up the right brow,

She is cheerful with the prettified eyes.

Think awhile!

Isn’t it a Shamshan Ghot, of womanhood,

39 The Alien Eyes

Her Ego and reverence,

Respect and deference?

Notes: Shamshan Ghot: a place where the

Hindus dispose of dead bodies.

Tha Tha, Thi Thi: the tones upon which

the professional dancers dance.

Anchal: a piece of light thin cloth used by

the women to cover heads.

What Do You Seek

What do you seek

In between lines of hand?

What do you seek

In these trifles?

Why do you entangle yourself?

He who is destined to meet,

Begins to walk on the path of life,

40 The Alien Eyes

With out beholding lines of fate;

And then never departs.

He that is not in the fate,

We never obtain,

And never goes along.

What do you seek

In between lines of hands?

The Island That Is Named Love

If you have to go,

To the Island that is named Love

Take my memory along.

It is heard

That once there live a couple of swans,

41 The Alien Eyes

They both governed each other’s heart,

Picked dreams descending into the eyes,

Wove the fabric of faithfulness with

silky dialogues,

And renovated it on each day;

But what happened as the season

changed,

They both flew on diverse directions,

It is heard

Since then they were not seen together.

The Island that is named Love,

If you will have to go there,

Please do visit the lonely tree,

Upon whose costume of the branches,

On every side the names of lovers are

carved.

It is heard

42 The Alien Eyes

That the inscribers never get a chance to

rewrite,

They stamp their fingers with blood,

They lose their fortune, they accepted

their defeat.

The Island that is named Love

If you will have to go there,

Take my memory along.

My memory is a shade in sweltering

temperature

And it is a season of some village of the

past.

43 The Alien Eyes

It Is Time To Come Into Senses

O! Friend these gallant eyes,

These pretty limbs of body,

This splendid structure,

On which the world is astonished,

Are ordained to be decomposed.

Here pain of love is shocking

No I but the whole world declares it so

O! Friend this love is nondescript

It always deprives one of crown and

throne

On all sides around it rules.

O! Friend do not cherish frivolous hopes

No one gets flowers here but thorns

Do not run behind the shadows,

O! My friend.

44 The Alien Eyes

It is time to come into senses.

No Longer With Me

There is no more,

A deep layer on the eyes,

I live no more in the fantasies,

So there is no more agony of love.

I live no more on taking and giving,

And in outline of life,

The moment that slipped away,

From the lashes of my eyes,

And from the palms of your hands,

Had been a dream since ages,

But it no longer exists.

On seeing me your bewilderment,

Is a question,

It is true I am the same and you are too,

But my heart that was fond of you,

45 The Alien Eyes

Is no longer with me.

Suicide

“Written on Mother Day”

She beholds yellow faces of her kids,

Sometime she caresses them,

Sometime she traces in their eyes

Deep hunger and thinks

She couldn’t impart them any pleasure,

She couldn’t afford them life,

The home is sans contents of food,

She couldn’t pay bills of utilities,

The kids have been struck off from the

school,

They only look at an empty railway

track,

Perhaps the time of arrival of the train is

near,

At that moment

46 The Alien Eyes

She detaches them from her bosoms,

And kisses them for the last time,

And softly she tells them

“The world we are going to, there is

bountiful to eat”.

The train comes and then goes away,

The spot where mother and the kids sat,

There is nothing, only a few scattered

bits,

An empty satchel and shreds of

motherhood,

There remains nothing behind.

47 The Alien Eyes

Had There Been No Defeat

He said “Defeat is very deep

As deep as an ocean,

That who drowns into it,

He never emerges up,

So make conquest tradition of love.”

I said “No doubt it is a deep mystery,

But think a while,

If there had been no heart in the chest,

Where love would have been,

Had there been no defeat in life,

There would have been no existence

Of love in the world.”

48 The Alien Eyes

Separation Weeps

Those who break up relations,

Perhaps forget,

They meet by embracing,

Each season all alone,

But they weep not alone.

On becoming restless,

Saddened and impatient,

Separation itself,

Accompanies them in wailing.

49 The Alien Eyes

You Never Loved

You had no experience of love,

If loved why you didn’t ask

From paths about the destination,

You might have written

Any message on the gusts of wind,

Why didn’t you search for the name,

Written on stems of the trees.

You might have remembered,

Fragrant roses soaked in the cold dew,

And the moment

When you touched my colourful Anchal,

We conversed about butterflies

And glowworms, and sometimes

Sketched hearts on the paper-boat

50 The Alien Eyes

By pouring out the words of dream.

You might have remembered,

Valiancy of the flower-fly

And opening of the buds into petals.

Did you ever love? If you loved,

You could never forget all these affairs.

No my love, you did not love,

You might have seen love,

You might have thought for love,

You might have wished for love,

But you never loved at all….

51 The Alien Eyes

If Love Gets Annoyed

Faithfulness,

When gets over the shawl

Of compromise,

And assumes,

The shape of Winter,

It descends in the patio of heat.

It smiles like a bow of stars

Hanging on the lashes,

And sometimes it gives

An unsmelt perfume,

Of the untouchable figures

Of dreams.

When the chains

Of countless moments spent

52 The Alien Eyes

Along someone endeared,

Begin to jingle in the mind,

Silence at once cries

On the cable of breath;

It seems as if gusts of winds,

Come to whisper.

O! My Friend,

Now you might have realize,

The true nature of love;

Whatever wounds it imparts,

It never allows to stitch

And if love gets annoyed

It dose not allow to be alive.

53 The Alien Eyes

Be Heeded

My love! Then you have decided,

That it is apposite to flatten

The craving of destination,

The world desires it too,

And the life goes on in the same mode.

Listen! To grumble against the world

Has become an old practice,

You solicit to your heart too

That what does it intend.

The world has not snatched yet from you

The hope of destination,

Tomorrow it will persuade you

To renounce the route of life;

It will say to you to scratch out

Your eyes from their sockets.

The world will persuade you

54 The Alien Eyes To search for pulsation in the idols;

Then what will you do?

Suppose it will not be said to you,

Just you will be convinced,

It is useless to breathe,

And you forget the whole endeavour;

Speak! Will you kill your breathing?

Listen! To grumble against the world

Has become an old practice;

You will look like the veteran,

Who at the moment of a combat thinks

That he remembers all tactics to fight,

And has brought all weapons of need,

But he has forgotten in haste

His valour at home.

Be heeded my love!

The pedestal of life

Is commitment to destination,

55 The Alien Eyes

In case you lose it how will you survive?

Write Not On Waters

Write not on waters,

To write on waters is not a good

practice.

Whatever you write on them,

Whether it is meeting or parting,

Whether it is pang or tang,

Is not perpetual.

The inscriptions on waters are fleeting,

They take us into illusions,

And wipe away us all.

56 The Alien Eyes

A Tale Has So Many Modes

A Tale has so many modes,

Sometime smiles,

And sometime hums,

Sometime scares,

And sometime is scared;

It makes us weep,

It makes us laugh,

It erases and then makes us all,

The Tale helps us in annoyance,

I have a relation with it very old.

The Tale itself is Time,

She came today but was much troubled

And said to me,

“Friend! Sassi became decrepit

57 The Alien Eyes

Amid the sands of deserts,

And your feet are perforated

With thousand of thorns,

And the very thorns have

Pierced your heart too, but you are

Still silent even today,

Death has stamped your fingers,

The lamp that you put on the palm,

Has been put out since long,

Only ashes remain behind,

Perhaps the traveller is lost

In the prison of the route,

That is why all over silences prevail

But the Tale comes every day,

To impart a new wound

In the bleeding heart.

Note:- Sassi is a character of a romantic

58 The Alien Eyes

folk tale.

I Am A Mother

I am a mother and I know,

My child,

When and why calls me,

What makes him weep,

And what makes him smile,

When he takes respite,

And how he giggles.

I am a mother and I know,

But when he will be grown up,

He will disclose his heart,

And sometime conceal the truths

Assuming

59 The Alien Eyes

That the mother is ignorant of all,

Being at home what will she know,

He will come home late devising pretexts,

And at that moment,

I knowing all will show indifference,

For it is the nature of mother.

How can my son know,

That motherhood passes through

His veins in the form of blood,

If he gets a prick of thorn the mother

tosses,

Where ever he goes,

He remains cosseted amid,

The invincible siege of prayers,

He remains in the heart of mother.

Whenever he steps ahead,

And wherever he goes

60 The Alien Eyes

The Anchal of cool shadow

Remains with him,

I am a mother and I know him all.

December When You Turn

Again

O! December,

When you turn again this year,

You bring along

The news of the city which I long for.

The city

Where galaxies glimmer of glow-worms,

Where the spheres beam

With the colours of butterflies,

Where all-around is the aroma

Of faithfulness.

That one who touches it,

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Either with glance, or with fingertips,

Became perfumed for a while.

O! December,

When you turn again this year,

You bring along

The news of the city which I long for,

The city where grains of sand are stars,

The rose and the nightingale,

The moon and the stars,

Are the metaphors of faithfulness,

Where the heart is an ocean,

And gets several banks,

Where the goddess of fortune

Glimmers in the close palms.

O! December,

Ask us not the plight of our city,

62 The Alien Eyes

Here eyes are grimed

With the dust of caravan passed by,

Here love is like an iceberg,

And grows on the farms of sunlight,

Here when the dawn emerges,

The exhausted dreams of night

Are dumped and begin to thaw,

Here splinters of broken passion

Prick in the eyes, here we weave

Golden dreams by dipping

Lashes into the blood of hearts,

Then live and die

Amid those fascinations.

Though it is impossible to stitch

The tattered soul yet,

O! December do come and bring along,

The news of the city which I long for.

63 The Alien Eyes

Do Not Let Me Annoyed

Though

I rag you thousands of times,

And reconcile not thousands of times,

Yet

I plead, do not let me annoyed

If I become angry with you.

64 The Alien Eyes

Poke Not The Ashes

How pride of the dreams

Shattered in a moment!

And how the bits bled the eyes!

Who placed,

The burning coals on the tray?

Who deserted,

These wrists of yours?

Who erased

The lines of hands?

Who inscribed the pang

Of separation on the forehead?

The descending fog will blow out

The lamps of lashes;

Ah! It is not a delightful fun

To poke the ashes.

65 The Alien Eyes

Bring Me Back My Eyes

Bring me back my eyes,

For I shall behold

All colours of the universe.

I shall captivate

The galaxies in my eyes,

And steal all colours of roses

To adorn my countenance.

I shall behold

How the pang of separation

Inscribes lines on the forehead,

How love makes

Hermits the kings,

And union fills

The eyes with stars.

I shall behold

66 The Alien Eyes How tears drop

From the lashes when one weeps,

And if one laughs impulsively

How pink roses

Bloom instantly on the lips.

I shall behold

Why the snakes complain

Against the lady of night,

How the petals uncatch themselves

From the flowerer-flies,

Why the butterflies become

Gloomy seeing the flowers,

Who wrote all the mysteries

On the chest of mother Earth.

I yearn to pick

All seasons with the lashes.

O! My love,

You keep the reality with yourself,

But only once show me a dream

67 The Alien Eyes Though glimmering

Like a tiny glow-worm.

The End

The affair advanced,

In such a way,

He sent me a rose,

I opened the book,

Placed amid the leaves,

And kept it hidden

From all spying eyes.

At last it happened

There remained behind,

Nothing else except,

Some dried petals, and a little

Perceptible fragrance.

68 The Alien Eyes

Why Do You Sojourn In My

Dreams?

Why do you sojourn in my dreams?

Sometime

In the form of intoxicated breeze,

Sometimes

With fondness of the flower-flies,

Sometimes

In the wild look of a hermit,

Sometimes

With fragrance of flowers,

Sometimes

In the form of an innocent hope,

Sometimes

In the shape of a moon-ring,

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Sometimes

In the type of a string of stars,

Sometimes

In the texture of a woolen shawl,

Sometimes

As a butterfly,

Sometimes

As a glow-worm,

Sometimes

In the style of fragrance.

Why do you sojourn in my dreams?

70 The Alien Eyes

Let Me Talk To The Wind

Let me talk to the wind,

We have to tell the complaint,

That we nourished against her,

Often it knocks at the doors,

And disturbs our sleep,

Sometimes brings along from abroad

The news of arrival of the dear one,

But he comes not. It blows out

All quivering lamps of the lashes,

Sometimes awakens melody in the lute,

It mixes itself in the beats of heart-beats,

Sometimes it fells aged dried leaves,

It gives the birds a ride

By making them homeless.

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Let me talk to the wind,

Look how it descends,

Pushes boats on the chest of the sea,

It blows from all directions around,

And with a caressing touch

Shapes unsullied faces on the coastal

sand,

Then it flattens them all and how it

trains

The wingless clouds to soar,

Then squeezing the drops

Out of them garnishes the Earth,

How it smiles and hums

Diving into the chain of breath,

How it blows swishing

And then becomes motionless;

To make out these secrets,

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Let me talk to the wind.

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The Season Of Separation

He inquired,

“Were all dreams shattered?”

I responded,

“No there left some behind.”

He inquire again,

“Since when have you been conversing to

yourself?”

I responded,

“It is a gift bestowed by aloofness.”

He said,

“What have you done with bright eyes,

Rosy cheeks and golden facade?”

I answered,

“There rests in my inner-self the season of

separation.”

74 The Alien Eyes

My Love Your Are My Faith

MY Love!

You are my faith,

I am a Heart

And Soul you are my Love!

You bestowed

The dreams to these eyes,

You touched

Tone of the pulsating heart,

Instilled

Scent into breath,

You unfasten

The window of thoughts,

Your touch transformed

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The forehead into moon,

Then you stealthy

Stole sparkle from the beams,

Seeing which all of sudden,

The heart fluttered,

The moon smiled.

Who knows how many dreams

You showed

Till the dawn emerged,

You picked

Bafflement of the lashes.

You are the Guest of my Heart!

You are my Faith, my Love!

76 The Alien Eyes

Pity

He demanded

My eyes from me,

The black lace of lashes,

Shy rosiness of the cheeks,

All sparkle of the face,

Pinkness of the lips,

Dark night of the locks,

Golden sunlight of the forehead,

Curling hair, and ear-ring,

All grace of innocence,

Immature charm of youth,

Silvery arms,

And essence of the existence.

He demanded and I granted all,

But the secret has revealed today,

All affairs of love

And loyalty were transient,

Emotional and fleeting,

He nourished only pity for me

77 The Alien Eyes And not love.

Let Us Go To The Beach

Let us go to the beach

To weave a golden net

With the lashes,

Dive deep into the ocean,

To thieve melodious tones

Of the oysters,

To pick gust of scent

With the tender tips of fingers,

To touch the pain,

And listen to its conversation.

Let us go to the beach,

To see un-ravished petals

Of the roses

On which dewdrops cheer up

For a while then faint down.

78 The Alien Eyes

The sand of wanderlust

Troubles the eyes,

Let us capture

The fresh moon-beams

In the fist and steal there

The seven tones from the wind.

Let us both make

An earthen house,

Though for a while,

Yet to smile heartedly.

Let us count there

Those months and years

Which have been inscribed

On the stones and dried leaves;

Let us go to the beach…..

79 The Alien Eyes

An Astrologer

He sat beside the road,

And was busy in telling the people,

What fates have been ordained,

I impulsively stopped beside him,

And inquired,

“What fortune is your own,

Do you know?”

He became distressed,

Then he composed himself

And responded,

“Lo! How deep is creased

The line of swindling at my palm.”

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A Princess Resembles So

He said, “You are the princess,

Princess that God might have made,

Kneading, blending the seven colours,

Incarnated a form of brilliance.

If you cast a glance at someone,

Even the stone gets a tongue,

Opens the eyes steadily,

Pledges you to provide

Whatever you desire,

Whatever you think, it will give you

By selling its whole entity:

Body and soul.

Just make a motion, a gesture,

I will sacrifice the whole lot.

I desire to win you,

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By loosing the game of love,

By surrendering the whole being,

If I go back my words,

May I not live this life the next minute,

May I not inhale the second breath.”

He said, “You are the princess.”

I am engrossed how princess looks alike.

Does she resemble me?

Yes; the princess bears resemblance

Such as I am.

82 The Alien Eyes

Love: A Miracle

Love is light, a melody,

A strange inexpressible taste it has,

It possesses invincible the strength,

Sometimes digs a range of mountains,

Sometimes tramples sands of the desert,

Sometimes swims on the unhardened

pitcher,

Sometimes diverts course of the clouds,

Now becomes captivity of Laila,

And then lunacy of Qais,

Now like Khizar shows the exact route,

Then demands to bow beneath the

daggers,

It knows how to walk on the thorny

paths,

It knows how to die laughingly,

It knows how to kick the worldly

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splendour,

It requires to be placed in the being-built

walls,

It makes the stakes a gratifying hobby,

Now turns the gardens into ashes,

Then becomes sparkle of the crop of

roses,

It is the secret of self and ecstasy too,

Love has a strange chain of affairs,

Now Yasrab then Karbala

In each shape it has been dwelling,

Love is a miracle and total submission

too.

84 The Alien Eyes

An Old Belief

I shall write on my palm,

In the colour of henna

The same old belief

“Whatever it happens,

Men are never faithful.”

85 The Alien Eyes

This Exhausted Moon

This exhausted moon

Is the dream of someone’s eyes,

Those eyes which have been penalized

For being awake.

This moon is agony,

The agony which mixed into dust

In no time, the rosy moments.

This Moon is a response

Of such a question as it never

Has emerged in the mind

Of anyone even by now.

This moon is a chapter

Of some pain, of some union,

Of some separation;

If you confront him ever

Ask the exhausted moon,

Seek a reply from him,

Who caused him soreness

86 The Alien Eyes Who awoke him from the slumber.”

Hear Me!

Hear me!

I have to say you something,

“After spreading colours on my face,

Showing dreams to my eyes,

Touching with talks pulsation of my

heart,

Filling my hem with a galaxy,

Overspreading my head with an Anchal

of faith,

Become not disloyal to depart again.”

87 The Alien Eyes

If I Become Annoyed

Brawls between us,

Tangling, expostulating,

And threatening not to return,

No doubt,

All these have their apposite worth;

But be heeded, hear me!

Though I am stubborn, adamant,

Yet if I become annoyed,

Absolve my all imperfections,

By embracing,

Reconciling with me again.

88 The Alien Eyes

You Are Fallen In Love

When the clouds move swaying to the

desert,

The roses scent the air lacerating the

rocks,

The grains of sand become a galaxy,

The moon becomes envious on seeing the

earth,

The waterfalls engender melodies,

Wires of the heart throb on naming

someone,

All dreams awake in the dormant eyes,

Autumn begins to converse with spring,

Dusk of the evening perches on the

lashes,

Silence on the lips becomes a message,

The season of intimacies begins to linger,

Then you think you are fallen in love.

89 The Alien Eyes

Let Us Suppose

Let us suppose,

In case you had been faithful,

I would see the dream of life,

Expostulate with the fortune,

Dwell in your heart,

Would make you my own,

Would have never

Bothered the world,

In case you had been faithful.

90 The Alien Eyes

Forgetfulness

I have decided to forget you,

But

It is impossible to forsake you,

If I disown you,

I shall have to renounce life.

91 The Alien Eyes

You Have Cast Me Off

I was the only one,

Who caressed your all wounds;

I was the only one, my Love!

Who with pens of my lashes,

Time and again, wrote thousands

Of couplets on your conversing eyes;

And on the land of your heart

Placed I thousand of the reflections

Of faithfulness.

Speak!

Who gave you life against the wish of death?

But what have you done?

Have You cast me off too?

92 The Alien Eyes

I Am Fond Of You

He often said,

“You are not fond of me.

I responded,

“It is just a dawn my Love!

Confession is yet to be expressed,

Whatever I wish to say,

I shall not speak it yet,

I conceal from myself a lot,

I defer the emotions,

If they appear on the tongue.”

“Listen, My Love!

Stop for a while for it is my turn,

I am fond of you that is why

I become annoyed on every trifle,

And all of sudden become shattered,

Like a piece of mirror;

And if you delay in coming back,

93 The Alien Eyes

Thousands of suppositions

Torment my fond heart,

This or that may not happen.

Peek into my eyes, My Love!

How much love for you I have in my

store,

For I am fond of you.”

94 The Alien Eyes

Let Us Confess

O! My love,

Separation of centuries

Ensued between us,

But the son of love

Still shines in the heart.

Though we parted

Yet remained loving;

Let us confess that we dwell

In the heart of each other.

95 The Alien Eyes

The Village Of Deceptions

The world O! Friend,

Is a village of deceptions,

No deference is observed

Behind the pardas.

This is the place where we meet

Losses but not the truth.

O! Friend speak caring least

The difference of ‘I’ and ‘You’,

Here marital pleasures

Of all are robbed off.

Do not press your tongue,

Between the teeth, for your silence

Holds a storm in it.

The world in itself without you,

Is nothing, proclaim aloud

That it has severed you

Only with the fever of love.

96 The Alien Eyes

We Are Hearts And Hands

Be not annoyed with me,

Those who go asunder

On the winding route

Are in fact alien since beginning.

If it is possible,

Think not of them your own,

And be not melancholic,

O! Friend,

Make not your courage

The dust of their feet.

Be not annoyed with me,

Never lose your valour,

Till breath goes on be optimist,

Leave not the edge of hope,

Tough love is afar yet it is near too.

Rise! Gird up your back ,

For I am with you,

We both are hearts,

And hands of each other.

97 The Alien Eyes

‘Love’ Is Not A Vain Word

With a pride, with a delight

I have inscribed

The word ‘Love’ on the slate

Of my heart and often think

For whom I am engrossed.

This intellect my Love!

Is an enemy of curiosity of heart,

And a chain of decline,

Though there be aged prints

Of faithfulness,

It erases them in an instant.

Let it be thought, it is true,

Though there be series of oppression,

Or aching thoughts,

Or the decisions worth-forgetting,

Or anguish of penitence,

No loss is there, erase them all,

But my Love, think awhile,

If you get a moment spare,

98 The Alien Eyes My ‘Love’ was not a vain word.

Modes Of Love

Who can forget,

Pages of the bulky book of life,

Even though

They are torn to pieces.

The first colour that awoke in the eyes,

The first name that my lips liked,

The village and an unpaved

Path of that village,

The first spell of love,

An undreamt dream in your eyes,

And lowering of my eyes in shyness,

Innocent confession in my denials,

While saying “Yes” my impulsive “Nots”

Who can forget,

All these modes of ‘Love’.

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100 The Alien Eyes

The Alien Eyes

He in whose name I breathed,

Whose name remained on my lips,

He crept in such a way as that each

Recess of my being became fragrant.

I wrote his name on the palm in Henna,

But he met me today in such a manner

As with alien eyes on his face.

101 The Alien Eyes

Why Has God Created Those

Lips?

He often said,

“Do you know why God created your lips?”

On my unawareness he replied,

“So that they should confess,

You are mine, you are mine”

And then,

I became habitual in saying,

“I am yours, I am yours.”

Then a day came, he spoke wearily

To my routine expressions,

“It is queer you neither feel fatigued

Nor experience tedium, and then

It is true; the same sentence has been learnt

To be said by the lips of someone else.”

102 The Alien Eyes I am pondering that I should ask him,

“Tell me my Love!

Why has God created those lips?”

Seasons Remain Not The Same

(Written in the perspective of Kashmir)

The birds have awoken,

So discard the intension

To trap them with no water

And with no grain. They too need

Some crimson evenings of freedom;

They are being invited

By the washed clear dawns,

And by the spring-tide.

They remember too the soil

Of unpaved mud-plastered yards,

They like to dream about fragrant roses,

And they bear in minds

References of the books.

103 The Alien Eyes

The birds have awoken …

Their nests in the trees sobbingly wail,

They make them perturbed,

Their dreams are frailer

Than the wings of butterflies

That smolder in the burning coals.

They all are being brought up in the

flames,

But it is the time of their wakefulness

That this red wind-storm is just like

The scattering wall of sand.

The chains of separation

Do not always jingle on the feet

Nor the inscription of union

Always does glow in the eyes,

Nor airs always fragrance contain,

Nor seasons always the same remain.

104 The Alien Eyes

What A Small Poem It Will Be!

I have written a lot yet it seems

Nothing has been penned,

I have to sketch yet

The countenance of my dream,

And grip its realization in close palm,

Because the heart still palpitates,

And pain resides in there,

Dust of the past moments jab the eyes,

Someone’s memories make the lashes

sodden,

And shehnai still weeps.

105 The Alien Eyes

I have to write yet on water,

And all around will be the tale of

separation, What a small

poem it will be…

106 The Alien Eyes

Love Is Like Sand

I said it too,

Love is like sand,

It slips down through fingers,

But some grains stick with the palm,

And when it is bushed,

These grains pass through eyes

While journeying to the soul,

They often weep and wail

Lying in its secret channels,

But troubling a lot.

107 The Alien Eyes

Achievement

It was his habit to say,

“I had only thought of you,

And loved you since centuries,

Then became successful

In getting you,

No one is more beautiful than you my

love, If the moon has a glimpse

of you, No doubt he

will become jealous,

You are brightness of the red rose,

Fragrance has an urge to touch you,

Each moment is in ecstatic sway,

The sun steals luminosity from you,

The touch of your lips makes the word a

matter, You may turn

instantly the victory into a defeat,

I shall never uncatch you,

No rivals will have the right to get your

favours, Whenever

you detach, I shall die at the spot.”

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But it was all that he used to say,

And he is not saying at present,

Who knows there exists a century

Between “was” and “is”.

I Have Been Enveloped…

The world demands,

At each movement new affairs,

New days, new nights,

New eves and new morns,

New oaths, new pledges,

New relations and new links;

Now they do not laud the olden tales.

O! My love,

I myself became bushed of reiteration

Of the words and lines,

Then I wrapped the poetic lines

And diction in the red paper

I set them on the dancing flames

Of my inner-self.

When the flying particles of ashes

enquired me, “What

will you do hence,

109 The Alien Eyes

What will you listen, and what will you

say?” ‘Your ‘Daman’ is

empty.’ Then

I respond, “I shall neither do anything

hence, Nor shall listen, nor shall

say anything.” The

world has made me a legend,

For I have been enveloped by a tale.

On Love Half Realized

Even in the dream

Never lay your lashes

For half-realized love.

Half curtailed dreams

Torment the eyes.

Implant not half-recalled memory,

In the terrain of heart, for it pricks

And wheezes restlessly therein,

Rattles agonizingly,

110 The Alien Eyes

And flashes like lightening in the blood.

Let go away love half-realized

For Love, Fondness,

And Love Madness

Are always unfulfilled, half-realized.

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It Is Possible

It is possible that you

From each word of love,

May derive thousand of meanings,

And then your yourself refute them.

It is possible My Dear

That its charm may make you paralyzed,

And you finding yourself

In the lonely dark cave of heart

May confess, express reality of love.

But who will guarantee?

You never write 'No' prior to 'Yes',

And you never write 'Yes' prior to 'No'.

112 The Alien Eyes

Believe In My Oath

Believe in my oath,

I do not pine away in the pangs of

separation, My lashes are not

yet damp,

No one is between except ourselves.

Believe in my oath,

Inhabitants of the world

Do not have the strength to impede us

While moving ahead on the path of love.

I lived the moments of my past life,

Only tossing and panting for you;

But believe in my oath,

My fervour for you is not the same.

What is hidden in the sleeves,

You can not behold, believe in my oath,

The flag of compromise I do not hold in

hand I have even forgotten

your name, If you

are faithless, believe in my oath,

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I am not faithful too.

You Claim To Be True

You claim to be true,

I tell no lie to you too,

You bring me tidings of good times,

That they will come too,

In the patio of my house

The flowers will smile

And they will instil fragrance into my

breath, Have you ever

thought that the spring tide

Often goes astray forgetting the path

Of someone’s house, but you claim to be

true.

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Love Gets Crushed

Lust when possesses the heart

And rises Its head through earth of

wisdom, At the very

moment

When life makes Lust its nucleus,

It sets on fire everything all-around,

And garnishes conquest on Its heads,

At the very moment Love gets crushed.

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Destiny

O! Fortune-Teller,

Who inscribed consternation

In your eyes after reading,

The lines of my hands?

Tell me what tale you have read,

Tell me at least whatever the tale is

Whether there will be an end of it or not.

O! Fortune-Teller,

Tell me at least something

Whether there will be an end

Of the tale or not.

116 The Alien Eyes

Bring Me Back First The Season

...

These beautiful bracelets of Motia,

This Kagal, this henna,

Glassy bangles and a tray of red-roses,

Beautiful are the green Anchal and

scarlet suit, The same is

sound of the mill,

The same is the crowed on the well

Village is the same, same are the rites,

Same are the old faces but bear new

looks, The same tale,

the same promises,

The same fraudulent are the oaths,

O! My old well-wisher, it is all right,

But bring me back first the season to

write on sand.

117 The Alien Eyes

A Cry Yet Remains Behind

You went across the seven seas,

It seems as if several centuries have

elapsed. The seasons of union

came and went away,

But all tired, exhausted.

Behind you I became a victim of

daggering tongues,

The relations also made me feeble and

frail, The long dark

nights of separation

Made me powerless too.

The wounds of experience were dungeon

deep, No physician could heal,

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restore them back. There had

been hefty spectacles of a dream,

When it broke nothing was beside;

It had been better we should not have

survived, Our existence did not

match our beings. Ask

me not what happened in this episode,

What listened to and what I endured,

Founts of water gurgled from the eyes

for several years;

The walls of breast even now often

quake, It seems as if

they are saying,

“Peep into the inner part of your Self

A cry yet remains behind to be uttered.”

Today Is Your Birthday

Today is your birthday.

Do you know what happened years ago?

Speak my friend! Resolve the riddle!

Why are you so engrossed in thoughts?

Why are you so silent?

Come let me tell you,

119 The Alien Eyes

Years ago on the very day,

A sun-beam embellished this earth,

And smiled.

Do you know this secret?

Today is your birthday.

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Your Tone Is Twisting

The earth is the same,

And the sky is the same too;

This heart is an ocean,

And the eyes are its whirlpools,

Belief is the same,

And same are the delusions,

The moon and galaxy are the same,

Your form and features,

your conversation are the same,

But I have the sense for many days,

The sun is thawing

Descending into clamours;

In fact you tone is twisting.

121 The Alien Eyes

If You Had Been Faithful

If you had been faithful,

I would feature the face of dream,

I would lower and lift the silky lashes in

coyness,

I would settle you in the sugary rhythm

of palpitation,

I would get you inscribed

In the thick network of lines of my hand,

I would hide you in Bindia of my forehead,

I would reveal you the secret of

quivering ear-rings,

I would show you the bracelets on the

wrists I would make a trial of

my fate, You would

wipe colours of lips with a mischief,

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You would lift up the bridal-veil,

You would make me your own,

If you had been faithful.

A Devotee… (An Acrostic)

Fineness combined with all delicacies,

Affects both adamant hearts and minds,

Kneels and bows only before Almighty,

Humility, grace in perfect womanhood,

Incarnated love, sincerity, and fidelity,

Reward and gift to someone fortunate,

Admirable in lovely pose and posture.

Beauty that always reminds its Designer,

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Aroma much sweeter than fragrant

roses,

Tactful in dealing with impulsive beings,

Open-hearted and with capacious mind,

Orator who ever fought for woman

cause,

Lover and devotee of Five Sacred Beings.

Fakhira Batool

By: Muhammad

Shanazar

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