N. M. Rashed POEMS FROMTran MeN Ajnafo7(1955) Excuse-Maker Some lonely years have passed Since in this valley among these lush high mountains I brought her here I can see that sanitonum from the car even now Where we had our last conversation My love are you still sad over my unfaithfulness9 Love for that beggar woman9 No doubt she was beautiful But to love her—Oh impossible' To love that used and abused hunk of flesh9 Lust9 I am guilty of one kiss I only had in mind an experiment-To see how thoroughly poverty debases man' She wasn t convinced by my excuses With her weak piercing eyes She steadily stared at the mountains and the fierce and high headed trees Look there a branch of that big tree Has made a path for itself through the rock as though For it the rock had no reality' A sort of darkness has spread over the world But I can stilt see her through the chink of memory I haven t forgotten the helplessness of her glance And even now I remember her last words' Is this why I am searching for fresh horizons So that even her memory should hide its face9 The Spell of Creation Again the spell of creation In the light of a new morning through a half opened Bashful window peered at me' I in this city also Where in lanes and alleys scattered Annual of Urdu Studies #5 ci