O Frenzy: A Translation

O Frenzy: Ae Junoon
[By Suroor Barabankvi. Interpretive translation by Siyaah]

O Frenzy- reveal somewhat, at what destination am I?
In the lover's protective neighborhood, or in the killer's lair am I?

With shackled feet, carrying my cross on my shoulders,
I am the emissary of truth, but enclosed by falsehood am I.

Imagining celebrations at tomorrow's resurrection keeps this blood circulating,
I am in the present, but alive in my future am I.

Struck breathless I am by this vision of the gallows,
I am the slain, but in the ranks of the slayers am I.

He, from whom I have been estranged for ages-
Face to face with him today, and in a crowded gathering am I.

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For this ghazal, I've tried to keep the rhyme of the original in English. Suroor Barabankvi's lines are very lyrical yet filled with sophisticated imagery and meanings. His takhallus, "Suroor" means exhilatration, often implying a state of 'making glad' such as that caused through inebriation.

I've always felt that this ghazal of his deserves more regard than it seems to have got...I quite enjoyed translating it. Unlike traditional ghazals, there seems to be more of a theme across all the couplets...depending on one's interpretations. For example, in the last couplet, the 'he' (which is really gender neutral in Urdu) could simply be another person / beloved...but I think it could also be the poet himself, or even a divine 'He'. The last interpretation is interesting in line with other couplets where Christ-like situations are described.