There Was A Time When I Loved Alone Poem by Noshi Gilani

There was a time when I loved alone
Without dream or friend

There was a time when your love was untrue
When I endured such torment that

I don't remember anything now but
There was a river ... or a villa ...

You confused my heart so much
That love shrank to a riddle

Yet had I been the slightest bit disloyal
You would almost have taken my life

Time is like the snakes
Devouring jasmine in my courtyard

Who can I tell, this sad evening
How bright the line of fate once was on my hand?

[Translated by Nukhbah Langah and Lavinia Greenlaw]