It is long since the cry of Mansoor has dimmed,
I have brought glory to the gallows anew,
For time immemorial throughout the ages
We have drunk poison
We have sung our songs.
We bleed on the altar of life, We barter away everything For love’s ecstasy,
Proud of our poverty
We walk our chosen way.
The rich stare at us, amazed,
But we are indifferent to their taunts.
Their hatred cannot harm us. Truth is our talisman. We endure.
We weep for those
Who have no more tears to shed,
For the destitute, the forlorn. And for them we endure
The courtier’s rack, the hangman’s rope.
We are the bloodstained mirror.
Of a bloodstained world Humanity’s eternal suffering heart,
We are the undaunted warriors The riders of dawn Keen sensibility.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 19, 1986
