"The Only Poet" | Anwar Nadeem (1937-2017) | Translation: Ghulam Rizvi 'Gardish'

People
just caught hold of Iqbal
and stuck to him
once for all -
keeping themselves away
from a camel's hold
and a dog's spring!
yah!
they took it for granted
that religion
history
poetry
society
that social issues
as it were -
no longer demand
to think over
and understand again!

let India
with its latitude
and amplitude
remain in tatters!!

- Anwar Nadeem (1937-2017)
Translated from Urdu by Ghulam Rizvi 'Gardish'
Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademi's bi-monthly journal), 197, Vol. XLIV, No. 3, May-June 2000, pp. 71-72.