With Deep-Seated Grief And Pain In Every Fibre Poem by Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor

With deep-seated grief and pain in every fibre,
I wonder when love carved its image in my heart !

My eyes welled up with tears when I remembered
How he sat relaxed in a boat alone,
Leaving me tossing on the waves !

Playing false, he robbed me of all I had -
My heart, soul, peace and endurance, Who knows
If he flung them to the winds
Or put them up for sale !

Long I strove to hide the grief that strangled me;
But my oft-repeated fairy tale itself gave me away !

'Can you spend you life in fire ?' he'd said.
'That's the test of love !' What irony !
I was destined to spend my whole life in fire !
One who rules a garden, birds glorify in song.
How sad that he too overblows and wastes away !

I lay trampled down, forsaken. O grief unspeakable !
I was like a pearl necklace pulled asunder by love.

How would the morning breeze know
Why the bulbul complains ? He comes early,
And slinks away, folding up his skirt !

Mahjoor, you do not drink, nor serve wine to others;
But the world finds your songs more potent than wine !

[Translated by: Triloki Nath Raina]