ریحانے جباری

One Response

1. Rey­haneh Jab­bari
   (Naseer Ahmed Nasir)

   I have killed
   a man
   Who want­ed to per­fo­rate into my body
   No, sil­hou­ette of a man
   I have killed
   Yes, I have killed
   with a sharp dag­ger
   so that the blood may strain
   and keep strain­ing
   from the fourth floor
   to the base­ment of the inter­ro­ga­tion cell
   where I was thrown dead so many times, alive
   And I con­fessed
   what­ev­er they asked me to
   so that Baaduk may live and
   yet anoth­er teenag­er doesn’t
   get ripped and bro­ken apart
   In spite of being there
   in the court­room and in the prison
   God was unable to save my skin
   God is ordained by His own laws
   made for the human beings
   An eye for an eye
   An ear for an ear
   A body for a body
   but what is for a shad­ow?
   My fledg­ling soul was hanged
   the soul, which was like the cloud cov­er
   See, before the night ends
   my dawn has bro­ken on the gal­lows
   My shad­ow less body no more needs
   the sun­shine or the shade
   O moth­er! Do not inter me
   In this necrop­o­lis
   do not bur­ry the wind
   And don’t weep over me
   wear­ing the mourn­ing dress
   I want to remain unmarked
   and want to set sail tear­less
   Nowhere on this Earth is the place, where
   The wind, the cloud and the tears can be buried
   I do not belong to the dust
   O moth­er!
   Open the door
   my trail has end­ed…!

   (Trans­lat­ed from Urdu into Eng­lish by Kam­ran Awan)