The Land Of Moon And Stars Poem by Makhdoom Mohiuddin

(Before and after the partition)

Our martyred bodies burned like wax
The candle of our nation's dawn
Flickered through the night.
The land of moon and stars kept glowing
Still the thirst was not slaked
Even in our thirst we were drunk.
Bearing the empty cups of thirsty eyes.
Men and women waited.
Their revelry over, merry-making ended and wantonness ceased.
The bodies which glowed in the night:
In the morning became a wailing wall,
Became a thicket dense with thorns of grief.
The pulsing artery of night turned into a river of blood

Some wily leaders,
Serpent-tongued,
Their hearts black with hate
Leapt forth from ambush,
And drank the blood of morning's light.

The night sky shows darkness
But streaks of light as well.
Friends,
Let us join our hands
And walk towards our goal
The goal that is love
The goal that is gallows
The goal that leads to the streets of the beloved,
Carrying our own crosses on our shoulders.