Like a Desert Flower
Like a desert flower waiting for rain,
like a river-bank thirsting for the touch of pitchers,
like the dawn
longing for light;
and like a house,
like a house in ruins for want of a woman -
the exhausted ones of our times
need a moment to breathe,
need a moment to sleep,
in the arms of peace, in the arms of peace.
The literal translation of this poem was made by Dawood Azami
The final translated version of the poem is by The Poetry Translation Workshop
Notes
'Lalmi' is dry farming on desert areas where there is no proper irrigation system.
'Goodar' is a place on the bank of a stream or river at which water is drawn. Girls usually go there in the late afternoon to take fresh clean water in earthen ware jars.
'Mangai' is a large earthenware water pot.
© Poetry Translation Centre 2004-2010
aryen says:
good translation.... we need its pushto version yar.. agha owayo che sahi pe orasoo kana....
rana says:
so nice and wonderfull translation , Dawood Azami is really best translator and he is perfect afghan pashtun writter and jurnalist .
ahmad says:
may i say that you guys are doing an excelent job, so keep it up
baryalai helmand says:
Very nice poem and perfect TRANSLATION , i have been reading parween malaal poetry since my childhood , she has perfectly presented the a pictue of women life of afghanistan in general and life of pashtoon women in particular .
The efforts of Dawood Azami , who is a famous pashtoon jurnalist and a good friend of mine is also praise worthy .
and i heartly appreciate the greate work of poetry translation center . God bless you