The First Jasmines Ah, these jasmines, these white jasmines! I seem to remember the first day when I filled my hands with these jasmines, these white jasmines. I have loved the sunlight, the sky and the green earth; I have heard the liquid murmur of the river through the darkness of midnight; Autumn sunsets have…
आह को चाहिए इक उम्र असर होते तक कौन जीता है तिरी ज़ुल्फ़ के सर होते तक (A prayer needs a lifetime, an answer to obtain who can live until the time that you decide to deign) दाम-ए-हर-मौज में है हल्क़ा-ए-सद-काम-ए-नहंग देखें क्या गुज़रे है क़तरे पे गुहर होते तक (snares are spread in every…
Alleyway (Mi chiama talvolta la tua voce) Sometimes your voice calls to me, and I do not know what skies or waters you wake me to: a net of sunlight that glazes your walls that at evening were a swaying of late lanterns in the workshops filled with the breeze and sadness. At other times:…
The Art Of Poetry To gaze at a river made of time and water And remember Time is another river. To know we stray like a river and our faces vanish like water. To feel that waking is another dream that dreams of not dreaming and that the death we fear in our bones is…
Testament So often it has been displayed to us, the hourglass with its grains of sand drifting down, not as an object in our world but as a sign, a symbol, our lives drifting down grain by grain, sifting away — I’m sure everyone must see this emblem somewhere in the mind. Yet not only…
Dreams Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. … … … … Helen Keller She, In the dark, Found light Brighter than many ever see. She, Within herself, Found loveliness,…
Negro Speaks Of Rivers I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep….
