Monday, October 28, 2013

translating shiv kumar batalvi: adhura geet

a humble attempt at translating a poem by shiv kumar batalvi

gazal

i am a sentence in a song incomplete
a journey of the footprints not made by any feet

of all the havoc that love has wreaked
of these ravages i am the peak

i am a lamp in your gathering that’s gone out
i am an allusion that from your lips leaked

that has death alone as its cure
i am the worries of such a life worth a week

she, who saw me and looked away
i am the mute gaze of her eyes deep

it is but my own face alone that i've seen
what a strange man in this world i’ve been

someone heard shiv say yesterday, sorrow’s 
left me well known in this world bleak

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