A Quiet World Made by a Gaze: Reading a Couplet Attributed to Faiz Ahmad Faiz

तेरी सूरत से है आलम में बहारों को सबात
तेरी आँखों के सिवा दुनिया में रखा क्या है।
تیری صورت سے ہے عالم میں بہاروں کو ثبات
تیری آنکھوں کے سوا دنیا میں رکھا کیا ہے۔
Teri soorat se hai aalam mein bahaaron ko sabaat
Teri aankhon ke siwa duniya mein rakha kya hai.
Couplet often attributed to Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

Imagery and Emotional Core

These two lines speak with a simplicity that hides their depth. The poet suggests that the very stability of spring depends on the beauty of the beloved’s face. In the next line, he frames a rhetorical question: apart from your eyes, what has the world kept? This is not only praise; it is a vision of reality reshaped by affection. The face becomes an emblem of life, and the eyes serve as a metaphor for perception, guidance, and hope. The poet’s voice is tender yet absolute, showing how love can saturate everything, from the turn of seasons to the smallest moment of awareness.

Context in Faiz’s Poetic Tradition

Faiz Ahmad Faiz is renowned for uniting romance with resistance. Even in political verses, the language of longing slips in, softening sharp social critiques with the warmth of affection. This couplet, while primarily romantic, resonates with that larger tendency. The beloved stands not only as a person but also as a stabilizing principle, a force that promises continuity in turbulent times. By implying that meaning itself relies on a single gaze, the poet converts private desire into a reflection on how human beings anchor their existence. Such lines reveal why Faiz’s work speaks simultaneously to activists, dreamers, and lovers.

Sound, Form, and Recitation

The structure resembles a classic ghazal she’r, where compression and musical phrasing carry emotional intensity. Soft consonants and repeating vowels, “soorat,” “sabaat,” “aankhon,” create a flowing rhythm. When performed aloud, the couplet invites a gentle rise and fall in the reader’s voice, a hallmark of Urdu recitation. This musicality strengthens its appeal, letting audiences memorize and share it easily. Oral performance has always been central to Urdu poetry: meaning is amplified by cadence, by the pauses between words, and by the way listeners echo lines back in appreciation.

Cultural and Philosophical Reach

Beyond literary circles, these lines circulate in conversation, on social media, and in gatherings where people share verses to describe emotions too vast for plain prose. They speak to the universal desire for stability in an uncertain world. The notion that someone’s presence could hold spring in place reflects both romantic idealism and a deeper human need to locate meaning in connection. Listeners recognize themselves in this longing: we, too, seek a gaze that assures us life is steady and worth inhabiting. That dual register, at once intimate and existential, ensures the couplet’s lasting charm. It is not bound by era or geography; it belongs wherever people read poetry to discover their own hearts.

Note: Authorship of this verse is commonly ascribed to Faiz Ahmad Faiz, though attributions in oral tradition can vary. For rigorous study, consult critical editions of Faiz’s collected works.