1.
Many seasons have passed , many climes changed
You too are sad, friends, as we also are
You, alone , are not saddened by your rags
The truth is that we are in tatters , too!

2.
Your house lights are not quite radiant
The stars of my skies are also palsied pale
Your glass bars are rusty
While my goblets are dusty !

3.
Neither can you view your own contours
Nor can I see what is in my glass
Our minds are so clogged with cobwebs
That we just don't understand what's gone wrong

4.
You are stubbornly persistent in violence
We pride in our habitual endurance of repression
You are proud of fighting the Mahabharata
We take pride in being used to Karbala !

5.
The cypress has no pride of stately height
Nor has the thorn - bird's lament lessened a bit
The gardens of love could blossom nowhere
No olive branch of peace could any dove fly.

6.
The tragedy is that the breeze of bitterness
And stink of conflict
Comes from the gardens on either side
The irony is that both sides suspect
Spring has come only after bathing in the enemy's blood!

7.
Such is the situation of such brutality that now
Neither are your feet intact nor my hands
Victory is not yours
Nor defeat is mine
No one stands by you
Nor have I anyone with me!

8.
The helpless, voiceless people of our towns
Are buried in thousands of mounds of sorrow
Nor their bleak - fatedness seeks the glow of lamps
People who for half a century
Have lived in dense darkness !

9.
Such lamps as spread the light of love
Lamps which enlighten the heart's sanctuaries
Lamps that grant the glow of peace
Lamps which in turn light countless more lamps!

10.
Friends ! I 've come to your country this time
Neither for musical company nor poetry
If it is a question of your ego
I extend my hand in friendship , first !