Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Faiz Ahmed Faiz was born in 1911 in Sialkot, in modern-day Pakistan, and became a recognised poet aged 18. He was the best-selling modern Urdu poet in both India and Pakistan and is especially known for his poems in tradition Urdu forms.
In 1942 he joined the British Indian Army, for which he received a British Empire Medal for his service during the Second World War. In 1951 he was imprisoned and sentenced to death for a failed coup attempt but was released after four years. Two of his poetry collections, Dast-e Saba and Zindan focus on his life in prison.
He is best remembered for his poem, Subh-e-Azadi (The Dawn of Freedom), where he expressed sorrow at the price India paid for independence from Britain. Below is an extract from the poem, translated from Urdu by Baran Farooqui. Farooqui’s full translation of the poem can be found here:
https://penguin.co.in/thepenguindigest/subh-e-azadi-an-anguished-evocation-of-the-pain-of-partition/
We had set out, friends all, hoping
We should somewhere find the final destination
Of the stars in the forests of heaven
The slow‐rolling night must have a shore somewhere
The boat of the afflicted heart’s grieving will drop anchor somewhere
When, from the mysterious paths of youth’s hot blood
The young fellows moved out
Numerous were the hands that rose to clutch
the hems of their garments,
Open arms called, bodies entreated
From the impatient bedchambers of beauty