S. R. Faruqi:

(1) So you believe that Majnun is in futile pursuit of the howdah, my young friend?
Well, actually he’s very wise, that deranged crazy man, my young friend.

[The howdah in which Laila travels, riding her camel.]

(2) Does anyone bother even to taste sugar, my young friend?
Everyone here grants the utter sweetness of those lips and talks of nothing else, my young friend.

(3) I grant the preacher is angel-pure.
What’s difficult is to be human, my young friend.

(4) Largesse from wet eyes flows all the time.
Even the flood comes to beg at this door, my young friend.

(5) There’s surely relief and comfort beyond death
but between then and now there’s that deadly event, my young friend.

(6) Trampling the heart under foot is not only tyranny but wrathful violence.
Did anyone ever pound it so? After all, it’s a heart, my young friend.

(7) Why dread the doomsday that must come someday. Tomorrow?
The night is pregnant, so let’s see what it brings forth at dawn, my young friend.

[A Persian proverb, shab hāmil ast tā fardā che zayad, translated almost literally here by the poet. It was not an uncommon practice until about the mid-nineteenth century to literally translate a Persian phrase or proverb into Urdu.]

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FWP:

(inspired by SRF's translation)

(1) As if he pursued the howda for nothing, sir!
That madman is 'crazy like a fox', sir.

(2) Who has any regard for sugar, sir?
Everyone speaks only of her lips, sir.

(3) I grant that the Preacher is an angel.
To be a human is very difficult, sir.

(4) Charitable tears flow endlessly from my wet eyes.
The flood comes to beg at my door, sir.

(5) Beyond death there's ease, it's true, but
In between, this 'event' is an obstacle, sir.

(6) To trample the heart under foot is cruelty, is oppression!
Does anyone pummel it so? After all, it's a heart, sir!

(7) Doomsday will come, if not today, then tomorrow.
'The night is pregnant'. Let's see what would come by dawn, sir.

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Zahra Sabri:

Zahra Sabri is a special guest translator for this site.

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