No Rival Like The Past
As those who eat a Luscious Fruit, sunbaked, Full of sweet juice, with zest, until they find It finished, and their appetite unslaked, And so return and eat the pared-off rind;– We, who in Youth, set white and careless teeth In the Ripe Fruits of Pleasure while they last, Later, creep back to gnaw […]
Nay Not To Night
Nay, not to-night;–the slow, sad rain is falling Sorrowful tears, beneath a grieving sky, Far off a famished jackal, faintly calling, Renders the dusk more lonely with its cry. The mighty river rushes, sobbing, seawards, The shadows shelter faint mysterious fears, I turn mine eyes for consolation theewards, And find thy lashes tremulous with […]
My Paramour Was Loneliness
My paramour was loneliness And lying by the sea, Soft songs of sorrow and distress He did beget in me. Later another lover came More meet for my desire, “Radiant Beauty” was his name; His sons had wings of fire! Poetry Monster – Home A few random poems: […]
My Desire
Fate has given me many a gift To which men most aspire, Lovely, precious and costly things, But not my heart’s desire. Many a man has a secret dream Of where his soul would be, Mine is a low verandah’d house In a tope beside the sea. Over the roof tall palms should wave, […]
Middle Age
The sins of Youth are hardly sins, So frank they are and free. ‘T is but when Middle-age begins We need morality. Ah, pause and weigh this bitter truth: That Middle-age, grown cold, No comprehension has of Youth, No pity for the Old. Youth, with his half-divine mistakes, She never can forgive, So much […]
Memory
How I loved you in your sleep, With the starlight on your hair! The touch of your lips was sweet, Aziza whom I adore, As I lay at your slender feet, And against their soft palms pressed, I fitted my face to rest. As winds blow over the sea From Citron gardens ashore, Came, […]
Marriage Thoughts By Morsellin Khan
_Bridegroom_ I give you my house and my lands, all golden with harvest; My sword, my shield, and my jewels, the spoils of my strife, My strength and my dreams, and aught I have gathered of glory, And to-night–to-night, I shall give you my very life. _Bride_ I may not raise my eyes, O […]
Malay Song
The Stars await, serene and white, The unarisen moon; Oh, come and stay with me to-night, Beside the salt Lagoon! My hut is small, but as you lie, You see the lighted shore, And hear the rippling water sigh Beneath the pile-raised floor. No gift have I of jewels or flowers, My room is […]
Malaria
He lurks among the reeds, beside the marsh, Red oleanders twisted in His hair, His eyes are haggard and His lips are harsh, Upon His breast the bones show gaunt and bare. The green and stagnant waters lick His feet, And from their filmy, iridescent scum Clouds of mosquitoes, gauzy in the heat, Rise […]
Mahomed Akrams Appeal To The Stars
Oh, Silver Stars that shine on what I love, Touch the soft hair and sparkle in the eyes,– Send, from your calm serenity above, Sleep to whom, sleepless, here, despairing lies. Broken, forlorn, upon the Desert sand That sucks these tears, and utterly abased, Looking across the lonely, level land, With thoughts more desolate […]
Love Lightly
There were Roses in the hedges, and Sunshine in the sky, Red Lilies in the sedges, where the water rippled by, A thousand Bulbuls singing, oh, how jubilant they were, And a thousand flowers flinging their sweetness on the air. But you, who sat beside me, had a shadow in your eyes, Their sadness […]
Lost Delight
After the Hazara War I lie alone beneath the Almond blossoms, Where we two lay together in the spring, And now, as then, the mountain snows are melting, This year, as last, the water-courses sing. That was another spring, and other flowers, Hung, pink and fragile, on the leafless tree, The land rejoiced in […]
Listen Beloved
Listen, Beloved, the Casurinas quiver, Each tassel prays the wind to set it free, Hark to the frantic sobbing of the river, Wild to attain extinction in the sea. All Nature blindly struggles to dissolve In other forms and forces, thus to solve The painful riddle of identity. Ah, that my soul might lose […]
Lines By Taj Mahomed
This passion is but an ember Of a Sun, of a Fire, long set; I could not live and remember, And so I love and forget. You say, and the tone is fretful, That my mourning days were few, You call me over forgetful– My God, if you only knew! Poetry Monster […]
Less Than The Dust
Less than the dust, beneath thy Chariot wheel, Less than the rust, that never stained thy Sword, Less than the trust thou hast in me, O Lord, Even less than these! Less than the weed, that grows beside thy door, Less than the speed of hours spent far from thee, Less than the need […]
Lallji My Desire
“This is no time for saying ‘no’” Were thy last words to me, And yet my lips refused the kiss They might have given thee. How could I know That thou wouldst go To sleep so far from me? They took thee to the Burning-Ghat, Oh, Lallji, my desire, And now a faint and […]
Lalila To The Ferengi Lover
Why above others was I so blessed And honoured? to be chosen one To hold you, sleeping, against my breast, As now I may hold your only son. Twelve months ago; that wonderful night! You gave your life to me in a kiss; Have I done well, for that past delight, In return, to […]
Kotri By The River
At Kotri, by the river, when the evening’s sun is low, The waving palm trees quiver, the golden waters glow, The shining ripples shiver, descending to the sea; At Kotri, by the river, she used to wait for me. So young, she was, and slender, so pale with wistful eyes As luminous and tender […]
Khristna And His Flute
Be still, my heart, and listen, For sweet and yet acute I hear the wistful music Of Khristna and his flute. Across the cool, blue evenings, Throughout the burning days, Persuasive and beguiling, He plays and plays and plays. Ah, none may hear such music Resistant to its charms, The household work grows weary, […]
Khan Zadas Song On The Hillside
The fires that burn on all the hills Light up the landscape grey, The arid desert land distills The fervours of the day. The clear white moon sails through the skies And silvers all the night, I see the brilliance of your eyes And need no other light. The death sighs of a thousand […]
Kashmiri Song
Pale hands I love beside the Shalimar, Where are you now? Who lies beneath your spell? Whom do you lead on Rapture’s roadway, far, Before you agonise them in farewell? Oh, pale dispensers of my Joys and Pains, Holding the doors of Heaven and of Hell, How the hot blood rushed wildly through the […]
Kashmiri Song By Juma
You never loved me, and yet to save me, One unforgetable night you gave me Such chill embraces as the snow-covered heights Receive from clouds, in northern, Auroral nights. Such keen communion as the frozen mere Has with immaculate moonlight, cold and clear. And all desire, Like failing fire, Died slowly, faded surely, and […]
In The Early Pearly Morning
Song by Valgovind The fields are full of Poppies, and the skies are very blue, By the Temple in the coppice, I wait, Beloved, for you. The level land is sunny, and the errant air is gay, With scent of rose and honey; will you come to me to-day? From carven walls above me, […]
Illusion
Thinking you had a heart that love could break, A lovely gentle soul that might awake, I held you tenderly for either’s sake, And showed you nothing but love’s ecstasy. Now, though you have no heart to melt or burn, No soul to wonder, meditate or yearn, Your beauty is a fact; lie still […]
I Shall Forget
Although my life, which thou hast scarred and shaken, Retains awhile some influence of thee, As shells, by faithless waves long since forsaken, Still murmur with the music of the Sea, I shall forget. Not thine the haunting beauty, Which, once beheld, for ever holds the heart, Or, if resigned from stress of Fate […]
I Arise And Go Down To The River
I arise and go down to the River, and currents that come from the sea, Still fresh with the salt of the ocean, are lovely and precious to me, The waters are silver and silent, except where the kingfisher dips, Or the ripples wash off from my shoulder the reddening stain of thy lips. Two […]
Hira Singhs Farewell To Burmah
On the wooden deck of the wooden Junk, silent, alone, we lie, With silver foam about the bow, and a silver moon in the sky: A glimmer of dimmer silver here, from the anklets round your feet, Our lips may close on each other’s lips, but never our souls may meet. For though in […]
Golden Eyes
Oh Amber Eyes, oh Golden Eyes! Oh Eyes so softly gay! Wherein swift fancies fall and rise, Grow dark and fade away. Eyes like a little limpid pool That holds a sunset sky, While on its surface, calm and cool, Blue water lilies lie. Oh Tender Eyes, oh Wistful Eyes, You smiled on me […]
From Behind The Lattice
I see your red-gold hair and know How white the hidden skin must be, Though sun-kissed face and fingers show The fervour of the noon-day glow, The keenness of the sea. My longing fancies ebb and flow, Still circling constant unto this; My great desire (ah, whisper low) To plant on thy forbidden snow […]
Feroza
The evening sky was as green as Jade, As Emerald turf by Lotus lake, Behind the Kafila far she strayed, (The Pearls are lost if the Necklace break!) A lingering freshness touched the air From palm-trees, clustered around a Spring, The great, grim Desert lay vast and bare, But Youth is ever a careless […]
Feroke
The rice-birds fly so white, so silver white, The velvet rice-flats lie so emerald green, My heart inhales, with sorrowful delight, The sweet and poignant sadness of the scene. The swollen tawny river seeks the sea, Its hungry waters, never satisfied, Beflecked with fallen log and torn-up tree, Engulph the fisher-huts on either side. […]
Fate Knows No Tears
Just as the dawn of Love was breaking Across the weary world of grey, Just as my life once more was waking As roses waken late in May, Fate, blindly cruel and havoc-making, Stepped in and carried you away. Memories have I none in keeping Of times I held you near my heart, Of […]
Farewell
Farewell, Aziz, it was not mine to fold you Against my heart for any length of days. I had no loveliness, alas, to hold you, No siren voice, no charm that lovers praise. Yet, in the midst of grief and desolation, Solace I my despairing soul with this: Once, for my life’s eternal consolation, […]
Fancy
Far in the Further East the skilful craftsman Fashioned this fancy for the West’s delight. This rose and azure Dragon, crouching softly Upon the satin skin, close-grained and white. And you lay silent, while his slender needles Pricked the intricate pattern on your arm, Combining deftly Cruelty and Beauty, That subtle union, whose child […]
Famine Song
Death and Famine on every side And never a sign of rain, The bones of those who have starved and died Unburied upon the plain. What care have I that the bones bleach white? To-morrow they may be mine, But I shall sleep in your arms to-night And drink your lips like wine! Cholera, […]
Early Love
Who says I wrong thee, my half-opened rose? Little he knows of thee or me, or love.– I am so tender of thy fragile youth, Yea, in my hours of wildest ecstasy, Keeping close-bitted each careering sense. Only I give mine eyes unmeasured law To feed them where they will, and _their_ delight Was […]
Disappointment
Oh, come, Beloved, before my beauty fades, Pity the sorrow of my loneliness. I am a Rosebush that the Cypress shades, No sunbeams find or lighten my distress. Daily I watch the waning of my bloom. Ah, piteous fading of a thing so fair! While Fate, remorseless, weaving at her loom, Twines furtive silver […]
Deserted Gipsys Song Hillside Camp
She is glad to receive your turquoise ring, Dear and dark-eyed Lover of mine! I, to have given you everything: Beauty maddens the soul like Wine. “She is proud to have held aloof her charms, Slender, dark-eyed Lover of mine! But I, of the night you lay in my arms: Beauty maddens the sense […]
Dedication
I, who of lighter love wrote many a verse, Made public never words inspired by thee, Lest strangers’ lips should carelessly rehearse Things that were sacred and too dear to me. Thy soul was noble; through these fifteen years Mine eyes familiar, found no fleck nor flaw, Stern to thyself, thy comrades’ faults and […]
Dedication To Malcolm Nicolson
I, who of lighter love wrote many a verse, Made public never words inspired by thee, Lest strangers’ lips should carelessly rehearse Things that were sacred and too dear to me. Thy soul was noble; through these fifteen years Mine eyes familiar, found no fleck nor flaw, Stern to thyself, thy comrades’ faults and […]