Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma Volume 11: 15-31 March 2015 No. 5-6

148 Law Animated World {15-31 March 2015} Postal Reg. No. HD/1098/2014-16
Lahiri Ashfaq Bismil Roshan Singh
“Desire to stake our heads is now
in our hearts; we’ve to see how
strong the killer’s arms really are!”
Kakori Martyrs
GIMME REBIRTH!
I’ll go with empty hands but this sting will go with me
As to when, on what day, India will become independent
Bismil, a Hindu, says: “I’ll come again, I’ll come again,
Aye Mother India, coming again I’ll make you free!”
How I wish I too say the same but my religion binds me,
I am a Muslim, so can’t talk of punarjanam (rebirth),
But if I find God anywhere, I will spread my alms-sheet,
And ask: “Instead of heaven, give me rebirth!’ (Ashfaq)
* * *
Oft we lit lamps amid storms
“मुलािजम हमको मत कहये, बड़ा अफ़सोस होता है;
अदालत के अदब से हम यहाँ तशरफ लाए ह।
पलट देते ह हम मौजे-हवादस अपनी जुरत से;
क हमने आँधय म भी चराग असर जलाये ह।”
Please don’t call us ‘servants’, it pains us a lot,
We have come here out of respect to the Court,
Daringly do we reverse the caprice of misfortunes,
Often have we lit the lamps amidst storms!”
[During the Kakori case trial, once the prosecutor by mistake called
Ramprasad Bismil and his comrades as ‘mulaajim’ (servants) instead
of ‘muljimaan’ (accused); Bismil, a quick-witted, accomplished poet,
at once shot this repartee.]
* * *
OUR HOPES ARE ON YOU!
कये थे काम हमने भी जो कु छ भी हमसे बन पाए,
ये बात तब क ह आज़ाद थे और था शबाब अपना;
मगर अब तो जो कु छ भी ह उमीद बस वो तुमसे ह,
जबां तुम हो, लबे-बाम आ चुका है आफताब अपना। (Ashfaq)
Whatever was possible for us, that work we’ve done
It was when we were free and in the prime of life
But now whatever remain are hopes, and that from you,
You’re growing up; we at the verge like the setting Sun.
* * * * *
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148
LIFE AND DEATH: FUN OF THE WORLD
कु छ आरजू नहं है, है आरजू तो यह
रख दे कोई ज़रा सी खाके वतन कफ़न म |
ए पुतकार उफत हुसयार, डग ना जाना,
मराज आशकां है इस दार और रसन म |
मौत और िज़दगी है दुनया का सब तमाशा,
फरमान कृ ण का था, अजुन को बीच रन म|
- Ashfaqullah Khan*
No other desire is there, but this one wish
that somebody put a little homeland soil in my coffin
Beware fanatics of love, don’t take a step back,
Here too are there love patients - of gallows and ropes even
Life and death is all the fun of the world,
Thus spake Lord Krishna to Arjuna in mid-battle-field!
* * *
HEROES, NEVER AFRAID OF DEATH
बुजदलो को ह सदा मौत से डरते देखा,
गो क सौ बार उह रोज़ ह मरते देखा|
मौत से वीर को हमने नहं डरते देखा,
मौत को एक बार जब आना है तो डरना या है,
हम सदा खेल ह समझा कये, मरना या है|
वतन हमेशा रहे शादकाम और आज़ाद,
हमारा या है, अगर हम रहे, रहे न रहे||
That cowards only are always afraid of death, I’ve seen,
Thus they dying a hundred times every day, I’ve seen,
But never seen have I a hero being afraid of death,
Death is sure to come once; then why fear it?
We always thought it a game – what else death is?
Let our motherland be free and fruitful always,
What of us – whether we be or be not – matters not.
[*Ashfaqulla Khan (b. 22-10-1900; d. 19-12-1927), a roll-model
revolutionary, and icon of communal harmony, was hanged one
day after Bismil’s hanging in Gorakhpur Jail; his last words – “तंग
आकर हम भी उन के जुम के बेदाद से / चल दये सूये आदम िजदाने फ़ै ज़ाबाद से”
(Getting vexed with their arbitrary atrocities, we also left this Faizabad
Jail for the abode of death); he has already been introduced to our
readers. - IMS.]
* * * * *