The Missing Verse Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

zamaane bhar ki kaifiyat simat aayegi saaghar mein
pii'o un ankhrhion ke naam par aahistaa-aahistaa -
Mustafa Zaidi

The missing verse is left to us,
To the eyes' sparkles, drink the wine,
Remove the veil from the face,
Slow the speech, slow the glance-
Sing O lady, thy hands are tendrils,
Rose buds stuck up the tapering fingers,
Restrained anguish, the travel though long,
Grace is subliminal music, nightingale's song.
You might have reached the destiny, love!
From the destiny we hear, treadings slow
Slow the rise, the demise slow,
That matters is dignity, dignified step.
The poet's lyrics are the lasting winds,
That this time your tresses perfumed,
Other times are the songs of other times.
From your eyes are stolen my lights
Thus in dark I grope with love,
Dust unto dust is the mortal life,
An eternal living although your drunken glance,
And I shall sing you, from beneath the otherness,
Roses afloat on the sunken boat -an epitaph.
Dead though, are dead indeed,
Given your breath in love, is an enduring you.

-On the song of Musarrat Nazir (1982) , lyrics by Poet Mustafa Zaidi.

Sadiqullah Khan
Peshawar
January 10,2015.