Abandon

"We move on and on, in search of mystery...and then we come to see that the only mysteries we want are the ones we'll never solve. And all we can do is try to cage with reasons what we know to be beyond the scope of reason. Till at last we surrender to something beyond us, and become unknowable ourselves."


"Metaphor was critical to the Sufis...because it was itself a metaphor: it said that behind the things we see, behind the people who speak, there lies another dimension, and that the other person sees even the things of the world in the light of the eternal."


From Pico Iyer's "Abandon".

Hum Dekhenge: Faiz's Predictions, Tunisia, Egypt and Beyond

Faiz Ahmed Faiz's lines echo around in one's mind these days, witnessing the upheavals in large parts of middle-east under oppressive political elites for long, for far too long...

Faiz's choice of words is haunting for several reasons: it is at once inspiring, hopeful, suggests a state of current oppression, and most importantly, predictive. He almost seems to be predicting that this indeed will happen, and "indeed, we too will witness..." - and the predictions at first glance are quite extreme, almost incredible. Yet, it is all happening...

Hum dekhenge
Laazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge...


Jab zulm-o-sitam ke kooh-e-garaan
Rooi ki tarah ur jaaenge...


Sab taaj uchhaale jaaenge
Sab takht giraae jaaenge...


I rarely translate Faiz, as it has been done by so many others quite well. One blogger's version is here.

Iqbal Bano's version remains the definitive one in terms of singing these lines...