The Rain of Stones is Finished
(For Hussain Nasir, tortured to death in the Lahore Fort, 1959)

Today as I stared, suddenly a string snapped,
and the moon and sun were smashed in the sky.
No darkness is left in any corner, and no light --
behind me the road of fidelity lies broken,
its lights extinguished, like my heart;
and nothing remains ahead. Friends, what will happen now?

Convoys of pain bearing cargoes of love must keep moving,
but someone else must now wave them forward.
And others must tend the garden where ardor blooms -
I can't: the dew of my eyes has dried: I won't weep again.
All rapture, the pure madness of passion, has ceased,
and no one's left to bear the rain of stones.

That road behind me: it was always the Beloved's street.
It is now the color of her lips;
my blood, like a flag, has been unfurled there.
I have nothing left to give.

And a glass is being filled again.
Friends, let one of you now come forward,
for the cry has begun: "Who'll dare to drink this wine of love
that is blood and poison? Who?"
This is the cry in the tavern after I'm gone.