Poem of the day: Speak

In an earlier posting, I had quoted Tony Judt who worries about "no speak."  Today, I read this piece on Google, China, and the First Amendment by James Fallows where he writes about a site called "1 for All."  An interesting site that is, devoted to the right to free speech.

To add to all that, here is a wonderful poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, in translation from its original in Urdu ...

A quick note on Faiz first.  Known for his poetry, Faiz was imprisoned for four years in the early days of Pakistan as a country for his role in a failed attempt at a coup.  It is even more unfortunate that in the post-Bhutto (the father, not the daughter) Pakistan, Faiz was forced into exile to Lebanon where he lived for a decade.

As far as I am concerned, these unfortunate events may not even have happened if the nasty partition had never occurred in the first place. 

Speak, by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Speak, your lips are free.
Speak, it is your own tongue.
Speak, it is your own body.
Speak, your life is still yours.

See how in the blacksmith's shop
The flame burns wild, the iron glows red;
The locks open their jaws,
And every chain begins to break.

Speak, this brief hour is long enough
Before the death of body and tongue:
Speak, 'cause the truth is not dead yet,
Speak, speak, whatever you must speak.

I knew of the following "film song" but had no idea it was a Faiz poem (Mujh se pehli si mohabbat) to which Noor Jehan (the singer here) had added the music