ID Code: TA017

3/3 & 4

Year:

2005

Although the British media have turned their attention to other matters, largely, the recent earthquake casts a long and deep shadow upon the very many people directly, or indirectly, touched by it. We extend our condolences and sympathies to those of our readers and contributors who have lost loved ones. The need to keep the pressure up, one way and another, and on the powers that be, to drastically increase and then sustain the relief effort is self evident.
To mark the disaster, I offer the poem I wrote on the day of its happening, along with three poems by Saleem ur Rahman. Whilst his poems are not specifically about the earthquake, they seem to me to encapsulate not only the wearying nature of keeping going in the strange and harsh world that is the one we inhabit, but also how vital it is to hold on to rays of hope in among it all.
Saleem ur Rehman’s same poems appear in the Urdu section of this issue of Tadeeb. The translations into English are his. Thank you, Saleem, for providing us with both versions.