Translated from the Urdu by Muhammad Umar Memon
When love comes
it doesn’t seek the body
it flows toward the other heart
so was my journey toward you.
Today I’m alone.
Your love now seeks my body—
just my body.
I search inside your heart—
I see a void.
I shall not let you be alone.
For when a body touches its mate
with nothing in its heart
one can sense loneliness
from afar.
~ Azra Abbas
Azra Abbas was born in Karachi. She earned her master’s degree in Urdu from Karachi University and went on to teach Urdu literature at a government college in Karachi. In 1981, her first work was published, a long feminist stream-of-consciousness prose poem. She has produced three collections of poems and one of short stories, along with an autobiographical narrative, and has also completed a novel. She currently resides in the UK.