Halaku, when you will come to Baghdad this time..

I feel privileged these days. There are such interesting and thoughtful friends in the blogosphere who are adding more poetry to my life. Mystic sent me Hasan Abidi’s poem in Urdu along with a competent translation.

Halaku ab jo tum Baghdad aaoge (Halaku, when you will come to Baghdad this time) is a powerful poem that invokes the historical characters of Halaku, Arabian nights and other tales to tell a sad story of present day Iraq.

The reference here is the invasion of Baghdad by Halaku Khan in 1258 that resulted in the death of over a million people and the destruction of this great city. History will treat the recent plunder of Baghdad in the same manner!

Read the poem and its translation here.

 Adnan has also posted this poem and written some powerful words in the introduction.