Faiz Ahmed Faiz POEMS Love's Captives Though the hangman s noose made a necklace around their necks the singers continued their songs Tinkling the ankle bells of their fetters the dancers tapped out their joyous step We who were neither in one group nor the other stood by the roadside bitten by envy We wept without making a sound At home again flowers which had once been red were pale Our hearts were gone from their rightful place instead there was only pain Round our necks from time to time there was the hallucination of a noose and now and then the weight of chains at our feet Then one fine day love came to drag us bound and manacled into the same cavalcade as the others If You Look at the City from Here If you look at the oity from here you see it is iaid out in concentric circles each circle surrounded by a wall exactly like a prison Each street is a dog run for prisoners no milestones no destinations no way out If anyone moves too quickly you wonder why he hasn t been stopped by a shout If someone raises his arm you expect to hear the jangling of chains If you look at the city from here there is no one with dignity no one fully in control of his senses Every young man bears the brand of a criminal every young woman the emblem of a slave 111