shām-e-firāq ab na pūchh aa.ī aur aa ke Tal ga.ī
dil thā ki phir bahal gayā jaañ thī ki phir sambhal ga.ī
bazm-e-ḳhayāl meñ tire husn kī sham.a jal ga.ī
dard kā chāñd bujh gayā hijr kī raat Dhal ga.ī
jab tujhe yaad kar liyā sub.h mahak mahak uThī
jab tirā ġham jagā liyā raat machal machal ga.ī
dil se to har mo.āmla kar ke chale the saaf ham
kahne meñ un ke sāmne baat badal badal ga.ī
āḳhir-e-shab ke ham-safar ‘faiz’ na jaane kyā hue
rah ga.ī kis jagah sabā sub.h kidhar nikal ga.ī
Agha Shahid Ali:
Ask no more about separation
somehow I lived through its night
The heart learned to console itself
life returned to its routines.
*In the festival of memory
you again were loveliness
lit up by beauty
the grief of the moon was extinguished
we were again together in the night.
*When I remember you
the morning is essence it is perfume it’s musk
And the night
when I kindle our sorrow
is longing caught in itself
*The heart as such
has settled its every doubt
when I went to tell her we must part*
but on seeing her
the lips spoke love’s unrehearsed words
and everything changed everything changed
It was the final night Faiz
what happened to those who’d started out with you?
When did the morning breeze abandon you
and where on those last miles
the dawn?
Juvenilia 