Empty Bench / Khaali Bench

Translated from the Urdu by Muhammad Umar Memon

“I’ll Wait For Him Because I Owe Him” by Amra Khan

A day will come
that I’ll forget all this
the severity of the time even
when my heart was rife with pain.
I’ll be the white bench
that remains empty
so I may sit on it
and stare into the expanse
where drops of water
like some formless substance wait
to become the apparel of the wind.

~ 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.