Short Poems

Awal hamad khuda da vird karye
Ishq kita su jag da mool mian
Pehlan aap hi rabb ne ishq kita
Te mashooq he nabi rasool mian

awakened at night ~
somewhere far among the pines
the wind whines

Awake, my fair, my love, awake,
So that I may gaze upon you!
And if one is eager to kiss your lips,
In your dreams this do you see,
Lo, then I myself of your dream
The interpreter will be.

Awake at night--
the sound of the water jar
cracking in the cold.


Translated by Robert Hass

Avariciously, I filled my belly
---draped the devilish frame
Of my long cage !
Robbed off was, I even
Of the ever-withering leaf:
Sinned I and earned
The vice !

Whenever Auntie moves around,
Her dresses make a curious sound,
They trail behind her up the floor,
And trundle after through the door.

When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
II
My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.

As I would free the white almond from the green husk
So I would strip your trappings off,
Beloved.
And fingering the smooth and polished kernel
I should see that in my hands glittered a gem beyond counting.

Like colored lanterns swung in Elfin towers,
Wild morning-glories light the tangled ways,
And, like the rosy rockets of the Fays,
Burns the sloped crimson of the cardinal-flowers.

(INSCRIBED TO ONE BEYOND SEAS)

Know by the thread of music woven through
This fragile web of cadences I spin,
That I have only caught these songs since you
Voiced them upon your haunting violin.