A timeless poem by Habib Jalib
posted by Zakintosh at 4/16/2005 10:06:00 PM
Saturday, April 16, 2005
About Me
- Name: Zakintosh
- Location: Karachi, Pakistan
They laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at them because they are all the same.
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words of wisdom
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.
These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have scrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness - that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that the saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought and, though it might seem too good for human life, this is what - at last - I have found.
With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.
Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a hated burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.
Bertrand Russell
The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.
Noam Chomsky
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein
Each century seems to take on a particular character as we view it in retrospect. How will the 20th Century be remembered? My guess is that this dramatic span of 100 years will ultimately be marked not by computers or the Internet, but by the drive toward individual freedom, the breaking of human barriers of prejudice, and the opening of society to include all people.
John S. Spong
DESIDERATA
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Max Ehrmann
7 Comments:
:) .. i loved the last 4 lines ..
but most people dont even like to think about such things these days... nothing can be more tragic than being an indifferent nation...
17 April, 2005 00:48
i LOVE Urdu poetry. Its in my blood and veins, thanks to mboth my parents being in that field.
I love the
Meri English bala ki chust hoti.....hehehehe
28 November, 2005 19:43
taazah shayr arz kia hae:
Khüda müjh say bhi karta baat - yaaro,
Jo Bush kee tarah maeñ Shaetaan hota!
29 November, 2005 00:02
Benazir even has a huge estate in the UK, complete with a private airstrip, I hear.
Har soobay mein zameen ki toh baat hi kya hai!
:D
There's another side to it though...Recently, when I was asked if I could translate a part of my blog into Punjabi for publication in a Punjabi magazine, I had to send in a note containing an apology and a request for getting that done from elsewhere. Now, I have always been mighty proud of my mother tongue, but this made me realise that the only language I could write with some confidence in, is English. I am sure that there are many others like me out there, in India as well as in Pakistan, who are more proficient in English than in their own mother tongues.
Perhaps we are all 'darbaans' of the 'firangis' in our own way!
:|
25 December, 2006 17:56
Very Nicely done!!
Check this links Now...
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www.khalid.googlepaegs.com
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12 January, 2007 22:32
Aamriyat jo is kai paoon ki zangeer na hot
Aqwame aalam ka leader Pakistan hota
24 October, 2009 09:25
Hashmi saab har joomlay ke do tukRay karnay sey wo sher nahiN banta. yey baRi chutya bat likhi hai ap ney
24 October, 2009 10:13
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