Show your face,
you,
my comrade
in the torments
of her unspeakable beauty,
which haunts my heart
with a thousand fantasies,
which blinds me
to the world
and its foolish tricks.
You are familiar with the path
her lustful spirit treads,
that
shines bright in her afterglow,
mocking my eyes
for futilely worshiping
the ground
beneath her feet.
You bask in her closeness;
you breathe in the air
which mournfully
bears
the fragrance of her body.
The moon sees you
from its perch in the sky,
as
it once saw the dalliances
of many an unfulfilled night.
You’ve touched that face,
those cheeks and lips,
to the
memories of which
I devote my life.
You’ve beheld those eyes,
that aloof,
bewitching gaze;
you know my life is not a waste.
The agonies of love
have been equally kind to us,
to you and
I;
a kindness that knows no limits,
or end.
What this passion gives to me,
or takes,
I can hope to explain to no other
but you, my friend.
It humbles me,
this love,
and makes me one with the beaten.
It brings me new friends:
melancholy,
and an endless ache of the heart.
It acquaints
me
with the dishonor of abjection,
and reveals to me
the cruel mysteries
behind
ashen faces
and helpless sighs.
When they huddle together
and weep,
those whose eyes won’t
shed tears,
for fear;
when the sustenance of the meek
is snatched from their
mouths,
by the beasts
bred of wealth,
and stealth;
when the honest toils of
love
are sold short,
and the streets run red
with the blood of the powerless;
a
fire consumes my soul,
a rage
I cannot contain;
so patient through the travails
of love,
why my heart now loses control,
I cannot explain.
An Inspiration from Faiz Ahmed Faiz's "Raqib Se!"
