Nahin hain phool to kharon ko cher sakta hun

If there are no flowers, I can flirt with nettles
In the heart of autumn, I can flirt with vanished blooms

I can flirt with the vanity of saints
Holding the whole galaxy in their embrace

The poet’s vision can scan anything
I can flirt with the entire gamut of despondent scenes

Taking everything in my stride
I can flirt with demure, hidden sparks

A loving look has moved beauty’s instruments to speech
I can flirt with the chords of this harp string

If the beloved’s goodwill is what life hinges upon
Then I can flirt with the axis of life

I can transform this simple ambience into a conundrum
I can flirt with the eerie suggestion of your eyes

The smile on your lips seems to suggest
That I can flirt with the victims of seductive eyes

Corpses can start breathing afresh
I can so flirt with moving, marching shrines

Fingers that failed to fondle your curls
Are fingers that can surely flirt with the stars

My grief, Firaq, rivals my gaiety
I can flirt with friends even in misery

Bara karam hai ye mujh par, abhi yahan se na jao

It would be a great kindness to me, do not go from here yet
This house is engulfed in grief, do not go from here yet

Your coming has dried the tears of this night
It is my fervent wish, do not go from here yet

Whenever you have parted from me leisurely
I have often come around, do not go from here yet

Glean from my eyes these priceless pearls
That you will never obtain again, do not go from here yet

In whose care are you entrusting longings
involving only you, do not go from here yet

Memories slumbering beneath excessive grief
Have just woken up, do not go from here yet

Stay on so I can mend my fate
From the charm of half-opened eyes, do not go from here yet

Your nearness enhances my belief
That my fortune is on the mend, do not go from here yet

The sleeping lamps have just opened their eyes,
The houses are still awake, do not go from here yet

Hold on, the whole night lies before us,
The atmosphere is desolate, do not go from here yet

Wherever you may be since evening
This heart keeps calling after you, do not go from here yet

My night will end with your going away
Don’t carry off my night, don’t go from here yet

You have stayed long enough for my sake,
How shall I ask you now not to go from here yet?

This twilight time, this weariness, this eerie silence
These tidal waves of tyranny, do not go from here yet

My loneliness, dear friend, appears each day after sunset
It’ll surely come to make my bed, do not go from here yet

The pretty moonbeam is yet to descend on the clump of trees
Do not go from here yet

This darkness, this ghazal steeped in tears
This is Firaq through and through, do not go from here yet

Sukoote sha’m mitao bahut andhera hai.

Annihilate the stillness of the evening, it’s unfathomably dark
Light the lamp of poetry, it’s unfathomably dark

The benighted colonies of the world will begin to glow
Sing elegiac songs, it’s unspeakably dark

I have lost my restive heart in the lands of grief
Go, look for it carefully, it’s dark, dark, dark

In this savage night you can see nothing at all
Let imagination not run wild it’s impenetrably dark

If she cannot attend the carnival of grief
Invite her smiles today, it’s incredibly dark

The tears that quivered in Adam’s eyes after the Fall,
Shed those tears, at least, it’s impossibly dark

I see no end to this sad night
Invent another night, it’s intensely dark

Revive the memory of past resolutions
Kindle new lamps, it’s real pitch dark

His life was but a delirious sleep
Do not awake Firaq, it is frightfully dark

Zamin badli, falak badla, mazake-zindgi badla

The earth, the sky, and ways of life have changed,
Culture’s ancient values have changed, man has changed

God and the devil have changed, the character of duality has changed
Frontiers of good and evil have changed, styles of heresy have changed

In trying to change the world, I am undergoing a change myself
If the world has not changed yet, I shall change it right away

New destinations must have new pathfinders,
The old prophets have vanished, styles of leadership have changed

Has it ever occurred to you, you folks of a bygone order
What your predicament will be, if this world ever changed

Here, the night lies heavier upon the rich,
There, moods of popular awakening have changed

We have a new manifesto, the priests and prelates are centuries old
Neither have decrees against heresy, nor dissidents changed

If anyone can tell, it’s your innate wantonness
Whether it’s a look of kindness, or whether ways of antipathy have changed.

Thanks to the munificence of man, the earth yields gold,
This speck of dust alone has changed the course of the sun, the moon and Jupiter

The stars are awake, the night gone to sleep with its hair flung apart,
Tiptoeing in, someone has changed the dream of life

Firaq, in tune with Mir and Ghalib, has struck new melodies now
Look! The assembly of life is changing, the colors of poetry have changed

Chir gaye saze ishq ke gaane

The melodies of love have been struck
The taverns of life have opened up

Today the heresy of love is startled
Today the desperate ones have spoken up

After ages in separation from you again
I’ve resolved today to console my heart

The recompense of beauty and love is just this
That man recognize man

You too get set for the journey, Firaq
The caravans are now moving that way

(Translated from the Urdu by Noorul Hasan.)