A Ghazal: Intimations of Ghalib
آہ کو چاہیے اک عمر اثر ہوتے تک
کون جیتا ہے تری زلف کے سر ہوتے تک
It takes a lifetime for sighs to sway hearts.
Shall I live to pick lilacs for your hair?
The soul’s slow sea journey is perilous.
It is a rough ride from a drop to a pearl.
Love practices poise: ardor abhors time.
Can I keep my heart cooking in this fire?
I grant you will hurry when I ask for you.
I will be dust when my cry reaches you.
A sun glance lifts a dewdrop to extinction.
I too shall wait for a ray of light from you.
This life is over before you even know it.
We are in the world like sparks in the night.
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. .
translated by M. Shahid Alam
from Notre Dame Review, Winter/Spring 2013