Don’t ask me for the same love, my sweetheart Poem

"Don’t ask me for the same love,my sweetheart"

 by Faiz Ahmed Faiz

                             

                                        

 Don’t ask me for the same love, my sweetheart

 I thought that life was radiant because of you

Why complain of worldly woes, once in your love - affliction

Your countenance brings eternity to the youth of spring

 What else is there in the world but for the beauty of your eyes?

 If you were mine, my destiny would surrender to me

 This was not so, only my wish for it to be

There are sufferings in the world other than the suffering of love

 There are pleasures other than the delight of our union

 Dark , heinous spells of uncountable centuries.

Woven into rich silk and precious brocades

 being sold in every corner, bodies,

covered in dirt, drenched in blood.

 Bodies , burning in hot ovens of disease

Pus seeping from open, lacerating wounds.

My sight returns to this as well, I am helpless

 Your beauty is heart - warming still, but I am helpless

 There are sufferings in the world other than the suffering of love

 There are pleasures other than the delight of our union

Don't ask me for the same love, my sweetheart!

 

Introduction

Do Not Ask Me My Love for That Love Again ( Mujh Se Pahli Si Muhabbat Mere Mahboob Na Mang ) is a famous Urdu poem written by Faiz Ahmad Faiz . Faiz Ahmad Faiz was an intellectual, revolutionary, and notable Urdu poet. His diverse career earned him a large following. In 1962, the Soviet Union awarded him the Lenin Peace Prize. Faiz was inspired by the Sufi traditions of South Asia.

 

Summary of the Poem

 “Do not Ask of Me, My Love “is a poem on changing one's viewpoint on love. It is a shift from the personal to the universal. The poem begins with the speaker's appeal to his beloved about her disillusionment with his love. He acknowledges that there was a period in his life when he was struck by love and everything was bright and flourishing. Her beloved's beauty was everything, and everything else was vanity. Her sorrows were more excruciating. But now the things are different for the poet. He tries to explain to his beloved his current inability to repay the same love he had when they were younger. Then there was her love, which was everything else. Now, he has gained a greater understanding of the world as he has grown older. He believes he must address far larger challenges. There is more to love and more sorrows to comprehend for him. The poem concludes that having a more mature perspective toward love allows one to better understand love and sufferings.

 

Analysis of the Poem

 The poem shows Faiz's inner conflict between love and patriotism. In this poem, he renounces romantic love for the ' beloved ' in favour of contemplation of the worlds suffering. The poem is significant because it prompts Faiz to reflect on the sorrow he witnessed around him as a result of his homeland's freedom struggle. The poem is divided into two halves. The first half begins with a couplet or two - line stanza and is followed by two lengthier stanzas. In this section, the poet addresses his ' lover. He tells his ' lover ' not to anticipate the type of love he formerly showed her. In the following stanza, he relates and describes how he had perceived ' life ‘. Because of his love for his lover, ' life ' appeared to be quite youthful and flourishing at that time in his life. Since his ' lover ' was the source of his happiness, he couldn't bear any form of misery inflicted on him. The poet asserts that his beloved's beauty bestowed perpetual youth to the spring. He claims that at the moment, his beloved's eyes were everything to him and that nothing else could satisfy him. As a result, he had believed that the ' world ' was his when he was in the company of his beloved. However, the poet admits in the second half of the stanza that such a thought was merely a creation of his imagination. He now realises that there are other types of agonies in the world besides love's anguish and that there are other forms of solace besides love's solace.