Patio

We speak your language

Wednesday December 31, 1969

When Autumn Came

By Faiz Ahmed Faiz
(translated by Naomi Lazard)

This is the way that autumn came to the trees:

it stripped them down to the skin,

left their ebony bodies naked.

It shook out their hearts, the yellow

leaves,

scattered them over the ground.

Anyone could trample them out of

shape

undisturbed by a single moan of

protest.

The birds that

herald dreams

were exiled from their song,

each voice torn out of its throat.

They dropped into the dust

even before the hunter strung his

bow.

Oh, God of May have mercy.

Bless these withered bodies

with the passion of your

resurrection;

make their dead veins flow with blood

again.

Give some tree the gift of green

again.

Let one bird sing.