Hindi poetry -- Translations into English; Indic poetry -- Translations into English
The shadows of evening fall thick and deep, and the darkness of
love envelops the body and the mind.
Open the window to the west, and be lost in the sky of love;
Drink the sweet honey that steeps the petals of the lotus of the
heart.
Receive the waves in your body: what splendour is in the region
of the sea!
Hark! the sounds of conches and bells are rising.
Kabîr says: "O brother, behold! the Lord is in this vessel of my
body."
XXIV
II. 48. _jis se rahani apâr jagat men_
More than all else do I cherish at heart that love which makes me
to live a limitless life in this world.
It is like the lotus, which lives in the water and blooms in the
water: yet the water cannot touch its petals, they open beyond
its reach.
It is like a wife, who enters the fire at the bidding of love.
She burns and lets others grieve, yet never dishonours love.
This ocean of the world is hard to cross: its waters are very
deep. Kabîr says: "Listen to me, O Sadhu! few there are who
have reached its end."
XXV
II. 45. _Hari ne apnâ âp chipâyâ_
My Lord hides Himself, and my Lord wonderfully reveals Himself:
My Lord has encompassed me with hardness, and my Lord has cast
down my limitations.
My Lord brings to me words of sorrow and words of joy, and He
Himself heals their strife.
I will offer my body and mind to my Lord: I will give up my life,
but never can I forget my Lord!
XXVI
II. 75. _ônkâr siwae kôî sirjai_
All things are created by the Om;
The love-form is His body.
He is without form, without quality, without decay:
Seek thou union with Him!
But that formless God takes a thousand forms in the eyes of His
creatures:
He is pure and indestructible,
His form is infinite and fathomless,
He dances in rapture, and waves of form arise from His dance.
The body and the mind cannot contain themselves, when they are
touched by His great joy.
He is immersed in all consciousness, all joys, and all sorrows;
He has no beginning and no end;
He holds all within His bliss.
XXVII
II. 81. _satgur sôî dayâ kar dînhâ_
It is the mercy of my true Guru that has made me to know the
unknown;
I have learned from Him how to walk without feet, to see without
eyes, to hear without ears, to drink without mouth, to fly
without wings;
I have brought my love and my meditation into the land where
there is no sun and moon, nor day and night.
Without eating, I have tasted of the sweetness of nectar; and
without water, I have quenched my thirst.
Where there is the response of delight, there is the fullness of
joy. Before whom can that joy be uttered?
Kabîr says: "The Guru is great beyond words, and great is the
good fortune of the disciple."
XXVIII
II. 85. _nirgun âge sargun nâcai_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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