Quotes from Amrita Pritam

Today, I call Waris Shah, "Speak from inside your grave"And turn, today, the book of love's next affectionate pageOnce, one daughter of Punjab cried; you wrote a wailing sagaToday, a million daughters, cry to you, Waris ShahRise! O' narrator of the grieving; rise! look at your PunjabToday, fields are lined with corpses, and blood fills the ChenabSomeone has mixed poison in the five rivers' flowTheir deadly water is, now, irrigating our lands galoreThis fertile land is sprouting, venom from every poreThe sky is turning red from endless cries of goreThe toxic forest wind, screams from inside its wakeTurning each flute's bamboo-shoot, into a deadly snakeWith the first snake-bite; charmers lost their spellThe second bite turned all and sundry, into snakes, as wellDrinking from this deadly stream, filling the land with baneSlowly, Punjab's limbs have turned black and blue, with painThe street-songs have been silenced; cotton threads are snappedGirls have left their playgroups; the spinning wheels are crackedOur wedding beds are boats, their logs have cast awayOur hanging swing, the Pipal tree has broken in disarrayLost is the flute, which once, blew sounds of the heartRanjha's brothers, today, no longer know this artBlood rained on our shrines; drenching them to the coreDamsels of amour, today, sit crying at their doorToday everyone is, 'Qaido;' thieves of beauty and ardorWhere can we find, today, another Warish Shah, once more