I take you to the mountaintops.
Please, please, see the stars that I see.
When you look up,
all you see are clouds.
Turning copper into gold became their goal
but how could they have forgotten the soul?
As long as men has been on this earth,
blood has been shed for a pinch of golds worth.
Yet, gold it is simply another stone.
And men have given less value to bone.
For this Allah kept the alchemists prize
in the hands of those who heard peoples cries.
When they turned to use its power
it was their souls that towered
Transformation
became
Transfiguration
Enough of learning, my friend!
To it there is never an end
An alphabet should do for you,
It’s enough to help you fend.
You’ve amassed much learning around,
The Quran and its commentaries profound.
There is darkness amidst lighted ground.
Without the guide you remain unsound.
Learning makes you a Sheykh or his minion,
And thus you create problems trillion.
You exploit others who know not what,
Misleading them with wild opinion.
You meditate and you say your prayers
You go and shout at the top of the stairs.
Your cry reaching the high skies,
Its your avarice which ever belies.
The day I learnt love’s lesson,
I plunged into the river of divine passion;
An overwhelming gale, I was confounded and lost
When Shah Inayat cruised me across.
- Original Punjabi
-Biography available here.
BAKHTI
(Sultan Ahmed I)
1026 Hijra [1617 AD]
Buy ersa jan meshammina fasl-i baharden
O THAT a fragant breath might reach the soul from early spring !
O that with warbling sweet of birds the groves once more might ring !
O that in melody the songs anew might rose-like swell !
That fresh in grace and voice the nightingale be heard to sing !
O that the New Year’s Day were come, when minding times gone by, *
Should each and all from Time and Fate demand their reckoning !
In short, O BAKHTI, would the early vernal days were here,
Then, ‘midst the mead, ne’er should we part from brink of limpid spring.
[ Source: Ottoman Poems ]
[ Published: 1882 ]
[ Translated by: E J W Gibb ]
* Nev-Rus, “The New Day”, the first day of the new year with the ancient Persians, is the “New Year’s Day” of the Muslim poets. It is the day when the Sun enters Aries.
In response to this previous Gazel from Hafiz Pasha, Sultan Murad IV responded:
TO Relieve Bagdad, O Hafiz, man of tried might, is there none?
Aid from us thou seek’st then with thee host of fame bright, is there none?
“I’m the Queen the foe who’ll checkmate,” thust it was that thou didst say;
Room for action now against him with the brave Knight, is there none?
Though we know thou hast no rival in vain-glorious, empty boasts,
Yet to take dread vengeance on thee, say, a Judge right, is there none?
Whilst thou layest claim to manhood, whence this cowardice of thine?
Thou are frightened, yet beside thee fearing no fight, is there none?
Heedless of thy duty thou, the Rafizi’s have ta’en Bagdad ;
Shall not God thy foe be? Day of Reckoning, sure, right, is there none?
They have wrecked Ebu-Hanfia’s city through thy lack of care ;
O in thee of Islam’s and the Prophet’s zeal, light, is there none?
God, who favoured us, whilst yet we knew not, with the Sultanate,
Shall again accord Bagdad, decreed of God’s might, is there none?
Thou hast brought Islam’s army direful ruin with thy bribes ;
Have we not heard how thou say’st : “Word of this foul blight, is there none?”
With the aid of God fell vengence of the enemy to take,
By me skilled and aged vezir. pious, zeal-dight, is there none?
Now shall I appoint commander a vezir of high emprize,
Will not Khizar and the PRophet aid him? guide right, is there none?
Is it that thou dost the whole world void and empty now conceive?
Of the Sevene Climes, MURADI, King of high might, is there none?
—
[ Source: Ottoman Poems ]
[ Published: 1882 ]
[ Translated by: E J W Gibb ]
the truth on 
m.a.kidwai,CME/IND.RLY.(retd.) on 
