Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna is a poem by Ramprasad Bismil. It is an emotion-evoking ode to the revolutionaries of the Indian Independence Movement. It goes as follows :

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai.

Dekhna hai zor kitna baazu-e-qaatil mein hai

Karta nahin kyun doosra kuch baat cheet,

Dekhta hun main jise voh chup teri mehfil mein hai

Aye shaheed-e-mulk-o-millat main tere oopar nisaar,

Ab teri himmat ka charcha ghair ki mehfil mein hai

Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai.

”My heart is now awash with a desire to be killed
To test the strength of the arms of the assassin.

Standing next to the gallows, the executor asks time and again
Does anyone exist whose heart yearns for martyrdom

When the time comes, O Heaven, I'll tell you all
'Tis still too early to reveal what resides within my heart

We've been drawn here by the hope that we'd be killed
Lovers gathered together in the assassin's killing fields

I have been wounded, and yet I still lust for more,
Bismil's heart has the courage to suffer still more.”

Ram Prasad Bismil was one of the great Indian freedom fighters, who also participated in the Kakori train robbery. He was also a great poet and has written several inspiring verses. He was prosecuted by the British Government in India. Ramaprasad Bismil joined the select band of martyrs who dreamt of a free India and made the supreme sacrifice, so that the dream might come true. Bismil, along with stalwarts like Ashfaqulla Khan, Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagawati Charan, Rajguru and others organised several upheavals against the British. They printed literature, provided shelter to revolutionaries, made hand bombs and were a constant source of headache to the British Government. Most famous of them are best rememberd for the Kakori train robbery and the bombing of the Punjab assembly.

'Bismil' is the penname of Ramaprasad. As 'Bismil' he is well known as a great revolutionary poet in Hindi. At the end of his autobiography, he has reproduced some selected poems. Every line of his poems throbs with patriotic fervor.

In one poem he prays: "Even if I have to face death a thousand times for the sake of my Motherland, I shall not be sorry. Oh Lord! Grant me a hundred births in Bharath. But grant me this, too, that each time I may give up my life in the service of the Mother land."

In a poem written just before going to the gallows, he prays: "Oh Lord! Thy will be done. You are unique. Neither my tears nor I will endure. Grant me this boon, that to my last breath and the last drop of my blood, I may think of you and be immersed in your work."