Poetry by Hafeez Rauf, translated by Fazal Baloch
Hafeez Rauf belongs to the generation of the poets who emerged on the literary landscape in the early 2000s. Homelessness, exile, uprootedness and related agony are the recurrent themes of his poetry.
How far will the last
sigh of the smoke stretch,
Rising from the tires
Burning in the distance?
The road lies closed --
No longer offers a passage.
Women and children,
Youths and elders --
All surrounded by an
ever-rising wall of helplessness.
How far can their hands,
their voices reach?
Meanwhile,
A crumbling wall,
In the wall, a decayed door,
And the door gazes at the occasional passerby,
Stretching its sight as far as it can see.
It watches the deserted roads
With the frantic eyes of a man
Who, after losing something,
searches his pockets in despair.
Where will this caravan of smoke lead?
The door just gazes.
Fazal Baloch is a Balochi writer and translator. He has translated many Balochi poems and short stories into English. His translations have been featured in Pakistani Literature published by Pakistan Academy of Letters and in the form of books and anthologies. Fazal Baloch has the translation rights.
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