The Nomad Flute

To Music by Neha

You that sang to me once sing to me now
let me hear your long lifted note
survive with me
the star is fading
I can think farther than that but I forget
do you hear me

do you still hear me
does your air
remember you
o breath of morning
night song morning song
I have with me
all that I do not know
I have lost none of it

but I know better now
than to ask you
where you learned that music
where any of it came from
once there were lions in China

I will listen until the flute stops
and the light is old again

- W.S. Merwin from " In The Shadow of Sirius"

Wild Geese

The Village of Prades by Joan Miró ( 1917 )

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

- Mary Oliver

Dard ka hudd se guzarna

Pollard Willows with Setting Sun by Van Gogh - 1888

Ishrate qatrah hai, dariya mein fana ho jana

Dard ka hudd se guzarna hee dawa ho jana

Tujh se qismat mein reri soorate qafle abjad

Tha likha, baat ke bante hi juda ho jana

Dil hua kashmakash charai zahmat mein tamam

Mit gaya ghisne mein is uqdey ka wa ho jana

Ab jafa se bhi hain mahroom hum allah allah!

Is qader dushmane arbabe wafa ho jana!

Zof se giryah mubaddil bah dam serd hawa

Bawer aaya hamein pani ka hawa ho jana

Dil se mitna teri angusht hinaee ka khayal

Ho gaya gosht se nakhun ka zuda ho jana

Hai mujhe abre bahari ka baras ker khulna

Rote rote game furqat mein fana ho jana

Gar nahin nikhate gul ko tere koche ki hawas

Kiyon hai girde rahe jolane saba ho jana

Bakhshe hain jalwai gul joshe tamasha Ghalib!

Chashm ko chahiye her rang mein wa ho jana

Taki tujh per khule ajaz hawai saiqal

Daikh bersatmein sabz aiene ka ho jana

- Mirza Ghalib

Key to urdu words: Ishrat- heartfelt wish (desire), qatrah- drop of water , fana- to get destroyed (mit jana)

Ek bass tu hi nahee

Southern Gardens by Paul Klee ( 1936)

Ek bass tu hi nahin mujhse khafa ho baitha
Mainey jo sang taraasha tha khuda ho baitha

Uth ke manzil hi agar aaye to shayad kuchh ho
Shauq-E-Manzil to mera aablaa-pa ho baitha

Masalaht cheen gayi quwwat-e-guftaar magar
Kuchh na kehna hee mera meri kata ho baitha

Shukriya ai mere qaatil ai masiha merey
Zehar jo tuney diya tha wo dawa ho baitha

Jaan-e-shahazaad ko min-jumlaa-e-ada pa kar
Huuk wo utthi ki ji tan se juda ho baitha

- Farhat Shehzad

Key to urdu words: Khafa: Angry, Annoyed, Displeased, Sang: Stone, Taraashaa: Carving ; Shauq-e-Manzil: Eager search of the goal/destination, Aabalaa-paa: Blistered Feet;Maslehat: Public interest, a thing that is right or wrong, Cheen-na: Snatching, Quvvat: Strength, Guftaar: Conversation, Discourse, Speech, Talk, Quvvat-e-Guftaar: Strength of Speech, Sadaa: Sound, Tone, Voice, Qaatil: Killer, Masihaa: God ( as Christ) , Zehar : Poison, Dawa: Medicine , Shehzad: A reference to the poet, Farhat Shehzad, Min-jumla-e-ada: fragile state, Huuk: shooting pain ( translation thanks to Ek Fankaar )

Notes: Listen to beautiful renditions of this ghazal on YouTube by Abida Parveen and Mehdi Hassan