shades of SUFI poetry
PREM DIWANI
Sourcing, music compositions, literary translations by Rekha Surya
Qawwali (Amir Khusro):
I adorned myself to meet my beloved; but
Beholding my love’s beauty, I forgot mine!
All my ornaments were snatched away,
After our glances met.
I surrendered myself to my painter
As payment for your colour,
Take my youth and beauty.
And got a colour just like his,
After our glances met.
I drank the wine of love
The pourer of wine must let it flow,
For on it floats the pilgrim’s boat.
And became inebriated,
After our glances met.
I gaped wonderstruck
If people only knew true love then
Angels would want to be humans.
And abandoned all else,
After our glances met.
My beloved possessed me
You’re with me yet apart from me,
You are a mere idol yet also God.
And benumbed me,
After our glances met.
Khusro adores Nizam
So high lives my lord where I just can’t climb—
Tell my lord to hold my arm and help me up.
And became his bride,
After our glances met.
An Urdu stanza:
In the freshness of spring I see you,
In the sparkle of the stars I see you;
My love, I swear by your veiled face—
In the sorrow of tears too I see you.
A Persian couplet:
Everywhere my beloved’s glory is seen,
On every face my love’s beauty is seen.
An Urdu stanza:
My beloved is seen in strangers,
Just as a flower is seen in thorns;
That face hidden from all
Is seen where love exists.
Bhajan (Kabir)
When you lose yourself in deep sleep,
Do you care about a pillow or sheet?
Your sadness is a dry piece of bread;
Why do you care if it has salt or not?
If you receive grace you can share it;
On the verge of getting it why lose it?
After falling in love should
Your mind remain slothful?
Kabir says, “On love’s path,
Never regret your sacrifices.”
Ghalib
What ails my innocent heart?
What’s the cure for this pain?
“Be good for your own good,”
What else is the dervish’s cry?
Though none exist without You,
Why is God’s existence doubted?
From where do flowers come?
What are clouds, what is wind?
Nawab Sadiq Jung ‘Hilm’
What can I say of your forgetting me!
Krishna, do you remember me at all?
I keep pleading with the brahmin
To give me detailed news of you.
I fall at the temple-priest’s feet
And try all superstitious rituals.
May dust fall upon such a marriage—
I was better off an unmarried maid!
In my parental home I would’ve been happy—
Why would I roam around restlessly like this?
Bhajan (Kabir)
An introductory couplet by Kabir:
Your Lord lies within you, like fragrance in a flower, just as the
Musk deer’s scent comes from him while he sniffs for it outside.
Where do you seek me, folks?
If only you knew, I’m in you!
You’ll not find me in rosary beads,
Nor in penance or religious fasting.
I’m not present in sacred rites, nor rituals,
Nor in religious sacrifices or renunciation.
Neither in temples, nor in mosques,
Nor in secluded places nor isolation.
Kabir says, “Listen, seekers—
I exist in your every breath!”
Couplets by unknown Sufi poets:
I see your glory everywhere—
If only I can see you in me!
One can escape the world but not one’s mind—
The mind’s light spreads to light up the world.
A couplet by Iqbal:
I sought in the skies above and the earth below for one
Whom I found dwelling in the dark corners of my heart.
A verse by the singer:
Earth, sky, wind, fire, water—
These five forces are jointly
The might of God reflected
In human beings, who then
Should respect one another.
Couplets of Kabir:
Searching for my love, I looked and saw him all around—
Since he exists everywhere, I became what I had found!
He owns me and everyone else—
There’s one in all and all in one.
Nothing in me is mine since I belong to you—
Take what’s yours when I give myself to you.
Just as oil is within a sesame seed and fire within a flint-spark
So also your Lord is within you—awaken yourself if you can!
Abdul Qadeer Siddiqui
The one who is cloaked in black…
Your form changes but I know—
Your every manner I recognize!
You drink, give drink to others, roam about drunk;
In your own lap you yourself play as Baby Krishna.
You intoxicated Mansur on the scaffold;
You intoxicated Qais with love for Laila.
Mirabai
I’m maddened by love; no one knows my pain.
Atop the scaffold lies my bed; how can I sleep?
Atop the skies lies my love’s bed; how to unite?
Restlessly roaming, I haven’t found a healer—
Mira’s pain can subside only by her beloved.
Shabad (Guru Teg Bahadur)
Seen everywhere is imperfect love.
People pursue their own pleasures—
Who then are relatives and friends?
We all die alone—
A law of nature.
Everyone says “Mine, mine!”
Which only binds the mind.
A stanza by Kabir :
Onlookers observe love’s fluctuations, its instability—
To weep one moment and laugh the next isn’t love;
Love doesn’t rise and fall from moment to moment—
Talked about by all, yet love is understood by none!