a woman s body an alien woman s— on which all night my lips avenged the helplessness of my countrymen I still remember that naked body In the Silence of Boundless Night In the silence of boundless night my love sometimes lying on your bed my limbs grow heavy with want and the languor of sensuous delight turns my mind into a wild swamp Then sleep only some distance away spreads its wings— like the geese of winter dawns fearful of some imagined hunter—sleep spreads its wings and honks in the silence of boundless night Sometimes lying on your bed my love my desire begins to crawl between the hills of your breasts like a negro yoked to tyranny and for a moment it seems to me you re not my love but a virgin in some coastal town and I an enemy trooper who has not lightened his soul for many a night and who some days ago deserted his ranks yearning for the passion s frenzy That s how sometimes it seems to me lying in your bed my love in the silence of boundless night Translated by C M Nairn Annual of Urdu Studies ^5 50