ان کہی کہانی (The Untold Story)
This book “An-kahi Kahani” is an elegy about being a storyteller, or rather a bard, a marasi, as an artist and a writer I often feel like all my life’s work is and will remain a struggle to tell a simple story, a story that desires to be told but I can’t bear to listen to it myself; the world believes expression comes easy to artists but somehow it always remains out of our grasp, keeps us running, flailing about; I use the same words and the same metaphors over and over again, but the story remains untold, I am tired of repeating myself and yet it keeps me restless, the burn stays inflamed, the itch persists.
ان کہی کہانی “An-kahi Kahani”
Mix Media Artist Book
8 x 5.5 inches (Variable)
2020
Text within the Book:
سمندر کی خاموشی میں، لہروں تلے
Through the silence of the ocean, beneath the waves
Through the silence of the ocean, beneath the waves
کسی خواب کا انتظار کرتے ہوئے
Waiting for a dream
Waiting for a dream
تمہیں ایک کہانی سنانی ہے
I have a story to tell you
I have a story to tell you
یہ در و دیوار تھک چُکے ہیں میری آواز سے
These walls have grown tired of my voice
These walls have grown tired of my voice
وہ دشت یاد ہے۔۔۔ جہاں میرا گھر تھا۔۔۔
Remember that desert… where my home used to be…
Remember that desert… where my home used to be…
مجھے اس تک پہنچا دو
Take me to it
Take me to it
وہ مجھ سے بھول گیا ہے
I have lost its memory
I have lost its memory
ایک ہی وعدہ تھا تم سے
This was my only promise to you
This was my only promise to you
ایک کہانی سنانی ہے بس
Only a story to tell
Only a story to tell
جانے کتنی صدیاں بیت گئیں
Don’t know how many centuries passed
Don’t know how many centuries passed
تمہیں آواز دیتے دیتے
Calling out to you
Calling out to you
ایک کہانی سنانی تھی۔۔۔
I had a story to tell…
I had a story to tell…
