My Life Is Not Mine— Give up wanting what other people have. That way you’re safe. “Where, where can I be safe?” you ask. This is not a day for asking questions, Not a day on any calendar. This day is conscious of itself. This day is a lover, bread,...
Muhammad Iqbal -Sympathy Perched on the branch of a tree Was a nightingale sad and lonely “The night has drawn near”, He was thinking “I passed the day in flying around and feeding How can I reach up to the nest Darkness has enveloped everything”? Hearing the nightingale wailing thus...
I marvel how Nature could ever find space For so many strange contrasts in one human face: There’s thought and no thought, and there’s paleness and bloom And bustle and sluggishness, pleasure and gloom. There’s weakness, and strength both redundant and vain; Such strength as, if ever affliction and pain...
You are not familiar with the hardships of solving enigmas O Beautiful Rose! Perhaps you do not have sublime feelings in your heart Though you adorn the assembly yet do not participate in its struggles In life’s assembly I am not endowed with this comfort In this garden I am...
WHEN I consider how my light is spent E’re half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one Talent which is death to hide, Lodg’d with me useless, though my Soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, least he returning chide,...
Elevation bestows the sky’s nearness to my abode I am the mountain’s cloud, my skirt sprinkles roses Now the wilderness, now the rose garden is my abode City and wilderness are mine, ocean is mine, forest is mine If I want to return to some valley for the night The...
I heard the trailing garments of the Night Sweep through her marble halls! I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light From the celestial walls! I felt her presence, by its spell of might, Stoop o’er me from above; The calm, majestic presence of the Night, As of the...
A moment of happiness, you and I sitting on the verandah, apparently two, but one in soul, you and I. We feel the flowing water of life here, you and I, with the garden’s beauty and the birds singing. The stars will be watching us, and we will show them...
The world below the brine, Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves, Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick tangle, openings, and pink turf, Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the play of light through the water, Dumb swimmers there...
Listen, O dearly beloved! I am the reality of the world, the centre of the circumference, I am the parts and the whole. I am the will established between Heaven and Earth, I have created perception in you only in order to be the object of my perception. If then...
Indeed, indeed, I cannot tell, Though I ponder on it well, Which were easier to state, All my love or all my hate. Surely, surely, thou wilt trust me When I say thou dost disgust me. O, I hate thee with a hate That would fain annihilate; Yet sometimes against...
The sky Is a suspended blue ocean. The stars are the fish That swim. The planets are the white whales I sometimes hitch a ride on, And the sun and all light Have forever fused themselves Into my heart and upon My skin. There is only one rule On this...
Pray to what earth does this sweet cold belong, Which asks no duties and no conscience? The moon goes up by leaps, her cheerful path In some far summer stratum of the sky, While stars with their cold shine bedot her way. The fields gleam mildly back upon the sky,...
The corner of the tavern is my altar, where I pray At dawn, the mantra of the Old Magi, I say. Fear not if the harp plays not at sun’s morning ascent My morning cry of repentance is the music I play. Thank God, free from beggars and kings, away,...
Some people fleeing some other people. In some country under the sun and some clouds. They leave behind some of their everything, sown fields, some chickens, dogs, mirrors in which fire now sees itself reflected. On their backs are pitchers and bundles, the emptier, the heavier from one day to...
How did you get away? You were the pet falcon of an old woman. Did you hear the falcon-drum? You were a drunken songbird put in with owls. Did you smell the odor of a garden? You got tired of sour fermenting and left the tavern. You went like an...
A Rose, in tatters on the garden path, Cried out to God and murmured ‘gainst His Wrath, Because a sudden wind at twilight’s hush Had snapped her stem alone of all the bush. And God, Who hears both sun-dried dust and sun, Had pity, whispering to that luckless one, “Sister,...
‘Tis light makes colour visible: at night Red, greene, and russet vanish from thy sight. So to thee light by darness is made known: Since God hat none, He, seeing all, denies Himself eternally to mortal eyes. From the dark jungle as a tiger bright, Form from the viewless Spirit...
Virtue runs before the muse And defies her skill, She is rapt, and doth refuse To wait a painter’s will. Star-adoring, occupied, Virtue cannot bend her, Just to please a poet’s pride, To parade her splendor. The bard must be with good intent No more his, but hers, Throw away...
Peace, Salma, and peace to those who halt awhile at al-Hima. It is right for one like me to greet you. Would it have hurt her to return the greeting? Ah, but a statuette goddess is beyond control. They left as night let its curtains down in folds. I told...
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