prayer, by faiz ahmed faiz

Come, let us also raise our hands to pray
We who have forgotten the protocols of prayer
We who don't remember anything
No God, no idol, nothing except the burning pain of love

Come, let us pray
that the beloved called Life may pour
tomorrow's sweetness in the poison of today
Lighten the burden of the days and nights
on the eyelashes of those
who don't have the strength anymore to bear it

Brighten with a candle, any candle
The nights of those whose eyes have lost the power
to sustain the glance of morning's bright face
Bring to light a path, any path
Before the eyes of those whose feet haven't the support
of any kind of road

For those whose dogma has been to talk the path
of untruth, of hypocrisy: let them be vouchsafed
the strength of denial and intrepid search for truth
Let those whose heads await the executioner's sword
be granted the puissant grace to wrench and spurn
the murderer's hand

The buried secret of love, which is like a fever in the spirit
Let's confess to it today and obliterate the burning pain
The True Word, which throbs in the heart like a thorn
Let us say it today
and take away the stab of the pain