The Forest That Woke Inside Me

By Qasum Faraz, Translated by Mujeeb Azad

In the beginning,

Only algae

Peep from the canthus of eyes.

Then, an apple of Sodom

Crawls upon the forehead,

Wanders on the palm of hand,

Every finger of my feet,

Every organ,

Becoming a tree.

Now, I am fully a forest—

A place for the hornet nests,

A home for ants and snakes,

They curved a city of burrows.

A place for sparrow’s tweets,

Sculpt a castle of symposium.

A while ago, on my shoulder blade,

In the nest of a poisonous oak tree,

A nestling’s eyelids parted to a world of light.

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Mujeeb Azad was born in 1990 in Turbat, Balochistan. He has published some of his short fiction in various Balochi Magazines. He translated Waiting For Godot into Balochi, which was published by the Balochistan Academy, Turbat, in 2024. He has translated a Balochi poem, "Extract" by Munir Momin, which was published in Legacies of Loss: An Anthology in 2019.  He holds a Master's degree in Philosophy and Literature.

Qasum Faraz was born on 4 June 1982, in Turbat, Balochistan. He started his studies in his hometown of Singanisar. He holds an English Literature degree from Balochistan University. His first book, entitled "My Some Verses," was published in 2008, and "My Second Collection of Verses" was published in 2015 in Balochi Language.