Happy Valentine!

My Dear Friends,

For you who have shown that hearts dont need you all to physically be here to feel your affection and friendship, heres Me, Wishing you all Love in All the forms that you are open to.  May the Love for others and yourself continue to grow.  May that love bring smiles to your lips and peace to your heart. 

I have enjoyed Poetry by the Poets from the Persian/Farsi world. In India, the language of Urdu, which is Hindi and Arabic mixed, is known to be a language of Ghazals, a poetic expression of pain, loss and love usually in about 5 or more couplets and refrains.  While I am not very fluent in Urdu and dont really know Farsi except for words that sound like the ones in Hindi, I have enjoyed Ghazals for their depth in meaning.  So This Valentine Day I wanted to share with you those poems that touch my heart from the Urdu and Farsi world.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I do when I read them.

Translation of A Persian Poem by Amir Khusrou Dehlavi (1253-1325 AD). He  was a Sufi Mystic and wrote in Persian, Hindvi and what is called as Khadi Bholi, a sort of minimalistic dialect of Hindi.

O you whose beautiful face is the envy of the idols of Azar
(Abraham's father and famous idol maker);
You remain superior to my praise.
All over the world have I traveled;
many a maiden’s love have I tasted;
Many a beauty-star have I seen; but you are something unique.
I have become you, and you me; I have become the body,
you the soul; So that none hereafter may say
that “I am someone and you someone else.”
Khusro a beggar, a stranger has come wandering to your town;
For the sake of god, have pity on this beggar
and do not turn him away from your door.

Here is a couplet Khusrou wrote, a couplet is called Doha in Hindi which are very meaningful and has word play. It also has the poet's name somewhere within the words.

Oh Khusrau, the river of love
Runs in strange directions.
One who jumps into it drowns,
And one who drowns, gets across.

Sources : http://www.ektaramusic.com/ak/doha.html

Here is one of Omar Khayyam's Quatrains from the Rubaiyat, which I think talks of self love.

And if the Wine you drink, the Lip you press,
End in the Nothing all Things end in -- Yes --
     Then fancy while Thou art, Thou art but what
Thou shalt be -- Nothing -- Thou shalt not be less.

Here is one of my favorite poets from my college days(I was around 18 when I read his poems in earnest)

LOVE'S SECRET - William Blake

Never seek to tell thy love, 
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart;
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears,
Ah! she did depart!

Soon as she was gone from me,
A traveler came by,
Silently, invisibly
He took her with a sigh.

This one is simple but emotional by Emily Dickinson

WILD NIGHTS

Wild nights. Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile the winds
To a heart in port
Done with the compass
Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden.
Ah, the sea.
Might I but moor
Tonight with thee!

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S TO YOU!

Peace
Rashmi

To read poems presented two years ago for the same occasion go here