This moment of seeing your face and my own inadequate passion

I can neither steal my gaze away nor meet yours

The gift of love, the offer of fidelity, the present of passion

That’s all the wealth I can lay at your feet

For long has this delicate form been quivering in my imagination

For long has your youth been tumultuously alive in my dreams

Cast in the mould of reality

Your story is becoming the title of mine

Taste and creativity have attained perfection evolving through stages

Constant effort has given you this form and feature

Life kept walking on many thorns and embers

Before this beautiful, this nimble a gait became yours

Your height has the loftiness of Man’s dignity

You are the daughter of the city, the masterpiece of civilization

My eyes will not blink now, nor will my gaze rove

This is the ultimate standard of beauty for me

This silvery form of yours, this rose-coloured sari

Twilight has draped it upon you with its own diligent hand

Your upbringing has rendered you the vivid beauty,

The exquisiteness of which even nature is bereft of

Your discernment makes flowers bloom when you speak

And knowledge makes grapes squeeze their sweetness in your voice

Who else possesses this alluring art of drawing one’s heart

For the very breath that draws you closer moves you farther

This elegance, this delicacy, this bashfulness, this coquetry

Like a hundred lamps burning against a swelling sea of darkness

Laughter the colour of pomegranate flowers spilling on blooming lips

Is a rebellion against the rules of surgery

Courage has awakened, the passion of belief has woken

I salute the nameless gestures of the glance of love

I prostrate before that beautiful land where you live

I salute the paths you tread

Come, come close to me that I may push your coiled hair in disarray

That thirst may get the message of rain-bearing clouds

The forehead from which a thousand mornings burst forth

If only such an evening would come into my world too

Nazrana

Tum pareshaan na ho, baab-e-karam vaa na karo

Aur kuchh deir pukarungaa chalaa jaaungaa

Usii kuuche mein jahaan chaand ugaa karte hain

Shab-e-taariik guzaarungaa, chalaa jaaungaa

Raasta bhuul gayaa, yaa yahii manzil hai meri

Koi laayaa hai ki ḳhud aayaa huun maalum nahiin

Kahte hain husn ki nazrein bhi hasiin hotii hain

Main bhi kuchh laayaa huun, kya laayaa huun maalum nahiin

Yuun to jo kuchh thaa mere paas main sab bech aayaa

Kahiin inaam milaa, aur kahiin qiimat bhii nahiin

Kuchh tumhaare liye aankhon mein chhupaa rakkhaa hai

Dekh lo aur na dekho to shikayat bhi nahiin

Ek to itnii hasiin dusre ye aaraaish

Jo nazar padtii hai chehre pe thhahar jaati hai

Muskura deti ho rasman bhi agar mahfil mein

kI dhanak tuut ke siinon mein bikhar jaati hai

Garm boson se taraashaa huaa naazuk paikar

Jis kii ik aanch se har ruuh pighal jaati hai