A quiver runs through flowers and wine begins to rain

Intoxicated drinkers become even more intoxicated

With a frisson lips fasten to the goblet’s brim

The virginal girl, beautiful, fair, tall

This light-giving flower girl, the pride of the garden

Filling her hem of hopes with flowers

In her lap this child carries a storm of colours and aromas

Playing amid colours and growing up among flowers

She is a bud suffused with the colours of the rainbow

In gay abandon her face covered by scattered tresses

Like the light from Sinai gleaming through clouds

Like lamps, her footprints light up paths in every direction

Her hem heavy with flowers she has turned into a garden herself

The morning breeze billows about, kissing her feet

Like a partridge she flits, swaying in a mad frenzy

In the coils of her hair she carries the lustre of the sumbul*

In her cheeks all the bright colours of the garden

In her eyes the essence of a sweeping knowledge

On her lips the clouds of gems and rubies

Nature has measured out and poured into her accepting eyes

And squeezed the entire garden into one flower

O celestial nymph of the garden, beware of pride

Lest the flower’s billowing fragrance fly up and catch your hem

Heed the message of the buds, receive the salutation of the dawn

From Kaifi accept the latest verses on the beauty of a friend

It is a poet’s heart, why should it be needlessly empathetic?

Give me a flower too if you like this poem of mine

Ek Dua

Ab aur kya tira biimaar baap degaa tujhe

Bas ik dua ki ḳhudaa tujh ko kamyaab karey

Woh taank de tire aanchal mein chaand aur taare

Tu apne vaaste jis ko bhi intiḳhaab karey

A Prayer

What else can your ailing father give you

Except a prayer that God grant you success

And may the one you choose for yourself

Stitch on your hem both moon and the stars

Ek Bosa

Jab bhi chuum leta huun un hasiin aankhon ko

Sau charaaġh andhere mein jhilmilaane lagte hain

Khushk ḳhushk honthon mein jaise dil khinch aataa hai

Dil mein kitne aaiine thartharaane lagte hain

Phuul kya shagufe kya chaand kya sitaare kya

Sab raqiib qadmon par sar jhukaane lagte hain

Zehn jaag utthtaa hai ruuh jaag utthtii hai

Naqsh aadmiyat ke jagmagaane lagte hain

Lau nikalne lagti hai mandiron ke siine se

Devtaa fazaaon mein muskuraane lagte hain

Raqs karne lagtii hain muratein Ajantaa kii

Muddaton ke lab-basta ġhaar gaane lagte hain

Phuul khilne lagte hain ujde ujde gulshan mein

Tishna tishna giitii par abr chhaane lagte hain

Lamha bhar ko ye duniya zulm chhod detii hai

Lamha bhar ko sab patthar muskuraane lagte hain

A Kiss

Whenever I kiss these beautiful eyes

A hundred lamps begin to glimmer in the darkness

My heart gets drawn to my dry lips

And countless mirrors begin to shimmer