khoon phir khoon hai
Sahir Ludhianvi wrote this nazm on the slain Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, the first prime-minister of Congo and also a staunch anti-imperialist. He was deposed from the office and murdered. A really good poet and someone who is very dear to me and has taught me a lot about Urdu Poetry, said he heard Sahir recite this nazm in a live mushaira in Chandigarh in 67-68 or 68-69 and continued that once he heard the second line of the nazm, he was so amazed at the depth of the line that he could not hear the rest of the nazm and he kept thinking about that second line “Khoon phir khoon hai, Tapkega to jam jaayega”.
Recently, a reader of this site, Mr. Satish Kumar Shukla, who dedicated his recently published book of English verses to Sahir, entitled WELTSCHMERZ posted a translation of this nazm on the site. As I had never read the original, I had to look it up after hearing about it so much and now that I have found it, here it is for all of you to enjoy along with the translation by Satish Kumar Shukla sahib as well. The poem opens in Urdu with this line:
aik maqtull lamumba, aik zindah lumuba se kahiiN ziaadah taaq’tvar hota hai (Jawaharlal Nehru) - the line is also translated below by Shukla sahib. My thanks to a few learned folks from ALUP (alt.language.urdu.poetry) to help me complete and fix the poem below.
zulm phir zulm hai, baRhta hai to miT jaataa hai
Khoon phir Khoon hai, Tapkega to jam jaayega
Khaak-e-sehra pe jame yaa kaf-e-qaatil pe jame
farq-e-insaaf pe yaa paa-e-salaasal pe jame
teGh-e-bedaad pe yaa laasha-e-bismil pe jame
Khoon phir Khoon hai Tapkega to jam jaayega
laakh baiThe koi chhup chhup ke kameeN gaahoN meiN
Khoon Khud deta hai jalaadoN ke maskan ka suraaGh
saazisheiN laaKh uRaati raheiN zulmat ka naqaab
le ke har booNd nikalti hai hatheli pe chiraaGh
zulm kii qismat-e-nakaarah-o-rusvaa se kaho
jab’r kii hikmat-e-purkaar ke eema se kaho (eema = permission)
mehmal-e-majlis-e-aqwaam kii laila se kaho
Khoon diiwana hai, daaman pe lapak sakta hai
shola-e-tuNd hai, Khirman pe lapak sakta hai
tum ne jis Khoon ko maqtal meiN dabaanaa chaaha
aaj vo kuchaa-o-bazaar meiN aa nikla hai
kahiiN shola kahiiN naarah kahiiN patthar ban ke
Khoon chalta hai to rukta nahiiN sangeeno se
sar jo uThtaa hai to dabtaa nahiiN aaeeno se
zulm ki baat hi kya, zulm ki auqaat hi kya
zulm bas zulm hai, aaGhaaz se anjaam talak
Khoon phir Khoon hai, so shakl badal sakta hai
aisi shakleiN ke miTaaoo to miTaaye na bane
aise shole k bujhaao to bujhaaye na bane
aise naare k dabaao to dabaaye na bane
———————
Here’s a translation of the nazm by Satish Kumar Shukla Sahib. Enjoy
BLOOD IS BUT BLOOD !
A slain Lumumba is by far mightier than a living Lumumba -Nehru
Repression is sill repression
Rising, it must flop
Blood is sill blood
Spilling it must clot.
Whether it clots on desert sands
Or upon assassin’s hands
On justice’s head or around shackled feet
On injustice’s sword or on the wounded corpse
Blood is still blood
Spilling, it must clot.
However much one lies in ambush
Blood betrays butcher’s hideout
Conspiracies may veil in thousand darkly mask
Each blood drop ventures out with burning lamp on its palm.
Tell oppression’s vain and blemished fate
Tell cruelty’s crafty Imam
Tell the UN Security Council
Blood is crazy
It can leap up to the cloak
It is inferno, it can flare up to burn grain-stock.
The blood you sought to suppress in abattoir
Today that blood moves out into street
Here an ember, there a slogan, there a stone
Once blood comes to flows
Bayonets are no avail
Head, once it is raised
Is not downed by law’s hail.
What is about oppression?
What is with its impression?
Oppression is, all of it, but oppression
From beginning to end
Blood is still blood
Myriad form it can assume
Forms such as are indelible
Embers such as are inextinguishable
Slogans such as are irrepressible.