IMPORTANT WORKS:

• Pakistan Writers' Guild's Best Book of the performance (1989)
• The Baba-e-Urdu Dr. Abdul Haq Award.

The Twelfth Man

In fine pleasant weather,
Countless spectators
Come to cheer their teams,
to elevate the spirits
of those they love.
Detached from the rest
I keep on hooting
The twelfth man.
What a strange player
This twelfth man,
The game goes on
Amid noise and cheers
And apart from the rest
He waits for that moment,
One such moment,
One such moment
When, after a mishap
Amid the clapping multitude
He would come out to play,
Then acclaiming his name,
A phrase of delight,
A heartening applause,
Would match his credibility

With the rest of the players.
But this seldom happens,
Yet it is said
That a player is committed to the game for life.
Can also end.
With the last whistle.
The sinking heart
Can also break
You too, Iftikhar,
Are the twelfth man,
Waiting for that moment
the moment of calamity,
The moment of a mishap,
You too Iftikhar,
You too will sink,
You too will fall apart.
Translated from Urdu by Yasmin Hameed.