मानवाधिकार

(सफी आबदी की यह कविता सुंदर लगी तो आप सबके साथ बांट रही हूं। एक छोटे हिस्से का अनुवाद भी मैंने किया है। उसके नीचे अंग्रेजी में पूरी कविता दे रही हूं। - आर. अनुराधा)

…वो कहते हैं, न्याय मांगना नहीं है गुनाह
सुनता हूं आप जो करते हैं मानवाधिकार की बात...
मैं नहीं मांगता धरती की
आधी संपत्ति अपने लिए
नहीं चाहता बादशाहत
किसी विशाल जागीर की
न ही मुझको है
स्वर्गारोहण की चाह
मैंने हमेशा मांगी है तो बस,
अपने हिस्से की ठंडी छांव...
(मूल कविता – सफी आबदी की ह्यूमन राइट्स)

Human Rights

..............A phrase in journals foreign
Embroidered
To seek justice's not a crime, I'm told
Yours a human rights issue, so I hear.

But my reality's unfairness applauded

Freedom and honor are words spoken…
A lullaby sang to ears ready for sleep.

Though I am only a human
Chasing a dream denied
My dilemma is tossed around
Circles mighty unwise
And my reality's noted
In resolutions unfeasible.

I ask not that I be given half
The earth's resources
I ask not that I be anointed a king
Presiding over a grand empire
I ask not that I be transported
To a heavenly abode.

All I ever wanted
Was the shade of an olive tree
Uprooted from a courtyard nabbed
But I am booed like a clown gone sour:

What's with him that he won't celebrate
And sing along? I am teased.
What's with me that I dare to die
Before the rockets land on
My bared back?
What's with me that I can't lie still
And be relaxed in my chambers of hell?
What's with me that I can't digest
The flavor of the mighty gun?
Why isn't he smiling at the bullet
In the face pointed?


What's wrong with being subjected
To tyranny premeditated?
Why doesn't he just call it a day?

- Safi Abdi (Palestine, 2004)