Hindi poetry -- Translations into English; Indic poetry -- Translations into English
The light of the sun, the moon, and the stars shines bright:
The melody of love swells forth, and the rhythm of love's
detachment beats the time.
Day and night, the chorus of music fills the heavens; and Kabîr
says
"My Beloved One gleams like the lightning flash in the sky."
Do you know how the moments perform their adoration?
Waving its row of lamps, the universe sings in worship day and
night,
There are the hidden banner and the secret canopy:
There the sound of the unseen bells is heard.
Kabîr says: "There adoration never ceases; there the Lord of the
Universe sitteth on His throne."
The whole world does its works and commits its errors: but few
are the lovers who know the Beloved.
The devout seeker is he who mingles in his heart the double
currents of love and detachment, like the mingling of the
streams of Ganges and Jumna;
In his heart the sacred water flows day and night; and thus the
round of births and deaths is brought to an end.
Behold what wonderful rest is in the Supreme Spirit! and he
enjoys it, who makes himself meet for it.
Held by the cords of love, the swing of the Ocean of Joy sways to
and fro; and a mighty sound breaks forth in song.
See what a lotus blooms there without water! and Kabîr says
"My heart's bee drinks its nectar."
What a wonderful lotus it is, that blooms at the heart of the
spinning wheel of the universe! Only a few pure souls know of
its true delight.
Music is all around it, and there the heart partakes of the joy
of the Infinite Sea.
Kabîr says: "Dive thou into that Ocean of sweetness: thus let all
errors of life and of death flee away."
Behold how the thirst of the five senses is quenched there! and
the three forms of misery are no more!
Kabîr says: "It is the sport of the Unattainable One: look
within, and behold how the moon-beams of that Hidden One shine
in you."
There falls the rhythmic beat of life and death:
Rapture wells forth, and all space is radiant with light.
There the Unstruck Music is sounded; it is the music of the love
of the three worlds.
There millions of lamps of sun and of moon are burning;
There the drum beats, and the lover swings in play.
There love-songs resound, and light rains in showers; and the
worshipper is entranced in the taste of the heavenly nectar.
Look upon life and death; there is no separation between them,
The right hand and the left hand are one and the same.
Kabîr says: "There the wise man is speechless; for this truth may
never be found in Vadas or in books."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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