We Who were Executed

It's true - that not to reach you was fate -
but who'll deny that to love you
was entirely in my hands?
So why complain if these matters of desire
brought me inevitably to the execution grounds?

Why complain? Holding up our sorrows as banners,
new lovers will emerge
from the lanes where we were killed
and embark, in caravans, on those highways of desire.
It's because of them that we shortened the distance of sorrow,
it's because of them that we went out to make the world our own,
we who were murdered in the darkest lanes.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz.....translated by Agha Shahid Ali