Waseem A Malla (Radbugh Srinagar(Jammu and Kashmir))

Far away in an unknown corner,
God has carved with His own hand,
Valleys that sink and mountains that do tower,
Kashmir: a holy, spiritual and a sacred land;

They say that a long time ago,
Housing the forest, the snake and the viper,
The mountains: the abode of snow,
Asked the God to send a piper;

To relieve the mountains of their inmates,
As it was a burden too heavy to bear,
That is, the snow, the dweller of the heights,
Thus God decided in the mountains' favor;

The piper was sent down to this land,
Speaking the nature's all dialects,
Over a pipe with a million mouths, utterly grand,
The sparrows amplifying the koels' effects;

They piped in the mountains and the vales,
Till the white gold began to melt,
And elsewhere, where the cloud above sails,
The mountains sighed as relieved they felt;

The parrots' squeaking, the sparrows' chirping,
Brought forth streams of water, fast and slow,
And the koels' singing all the spring,
To this day, since infinity, makes them to flow;

This Holy Land, full of nature's pure magic,
Now a burning land, then a green continent,
With snow melted as in saintly logic,
Houses the people with divine sentiment;

Brings forth the Jhelum and the Lidder,
And the Chenab and then the Indus,
Countless streams, here and there, hither and thither,
Flow in tranquility, and makes no fuss;

The piper of the nature created them so,
The rivulets of fresh water, rejuvenating,
The streams fast and the brooks slow,
Join these rivers, while culminating;

These rivulets, streams and brooks, within,
Of all sorts, they followed the piper,
Resemble the rats of the Hamelin,
In their attributes, they vary a cipher;

The piper led them all the way,
And took them into a cave, or sea, in a merry jeer,
Travelling in the night and during the bright day,
Into a land God named Kashmir/ Cashmere…