Dear Swat

Ey Zama Hewaada, zama Janata, kala ba de yaadegama!
-------------------------------------------------------

Like a bird on the wing
In my own lightness and glee
Let me fly to my land of serenity
For, solitary among the throng,
I am smothered,
Smothered in a land of tall buildings
And fine homes and baths
In a land of empty, starless skies
And sights of a tired and frustrated folk,
Hurrying about swarming streets,
Watering the soil of the land of those
Who water the roots of my people’s demise!

Let nostalgia seep into my veins
And take me away, take me home!
Take me to the land of my people
Where my sighs will become clouds of serenity
Where the loud gushes of my rivers
Threaten for justice for my people
Where only my sweet-scented soil
Has the power to rekindle my being

Take me to the popular lush valleys of Swat
To the sights of green fields,
Encircling me in their treasures of emeralds
To those gardens of mint, those gardens of flowers!
Oh! Their liberating scent in the evening air,
In the wake of dusk, at the rooster’s call
To those modest houses with their mud walls!
Where the music of children’s innocence
Empowers the clear skies of the village,
Their laughter clinking in the air
Take me! Take me to those spacious courtyards
With trees of bounties in open yards, open skies
No fogs of suffocation
Take me away

~ Qrratugai
~ 14th October 2009