The Piper's Verses

Let My Country Awake - Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action – Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines - Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines. Write, for example, ‘The night is starry And the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.’ The night wind revolves in the sky and sings. Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. Through nights like this one I held her in my arms. I kissed her again and again under the endless sky. She loved me, sometimes I loved her too. How could one not have loved her great still eyes? Tonight I can write the saddest lines. To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her. To hear the immense night, still more immense without her. And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture. What does it matter that my love could not keep her. The night is starry and she is not with me. This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance. My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her. My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer. My heart looks for her, and she is not with me. The same night whitening the same trees. We, of that time, are no longer the same. I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her. My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing. Another’s. She will be another’s. As she was before my kisses. Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes. I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long. Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her. Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer And these the last verses that I write for her.

If - Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’ If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Bol - Faiz Ahmad Faiz

bol ki lab āzād haiñ tere lab=lips bol zabāñ ab tak terī hai terā sutvāñ jism hai terā sutvāñ=straight bol ki jaañ ab tak terī hai dekh ki āhan-gar kī dukāñ meñ āhan-gar=ironsmith tund haiñ sho.ale surḳh hai aahan tund=fast/rapid, sho.ale=burning coal, surḳh=red, aahan=iron khulne lage qufloñ ke dahāne qufloñ=locks, dahāne=mouth phailā har ik zanjīr kā dāman zanjīr=chain/shackles, dāman=border bol ye thoḌā vaqt bahut hai jism o zabāñ kī maut se pahle bol ki sach zinda hai ab tak bol jo kuchh kahnā hai kah le

Ye na thi humari Kismat - Ghalib

ye na thī hamārī qismat ki visāl-e-yār hotā agar aur jiite rahte yahī intizār hotā visāl-e-yār=meeting with lover tire va.ade par jiye ham to ye jaan jhuuT jaanā ki ḳhushī se mar na jaate agar e'tibār hotā tirī nāzukī se jaanā ki bañdhā thā ahd bodā kabhī tū na toḌ saktā agar ustuvār hotā bañdhā=tie, bodā=delicate, ustuvār=strong koī mere dil se pūchhe tire tīr-e-nīm-kash ko ye ḳhalish kahāñ se hotī jo jigar ke paar hotā tīr-e-nīm-kash=half drawn arrow, khalish=unease, jigar=heart ye kahāñ kī dostī hai ki bane haiñ dost nāseh koī chārasāz hotā koī ġham-gusār hotā nāseh=advisor, ġham-gusār=comforter rag-e-sañg se Tapaktā vo lahū ki phir na thamtā jise ġham samajh rahe ho ye agar sharār hotā rag-e-sañg=vein of stone, lahū =blood, sharār =spark ġham agarche jāñ-gusil hai pa kahāñ bacheñ ki dil hai ġham-e-ishq gar na hotā ġham-e-rozgār hotā jāñ-gusil=heart breaking, bacheñ=escape, ġham-e-rozgār=sorrow of sustenance  kahūñ kis se maiñ ki kyā hai shab-e-ġham burī balā hai mujhe kyā burā thā marnā agar ek baar hotā shab-e-ġham= night of sorrow hue mar ke ham jo rusvā hue kyuuñ na ġharq-e-dariyā na kabhī janāza uThtā na kahīñ mazār hotā rusvā= disgrace, ġharq-e-dariyā= drown in the river, janāza= funeral, mazār= shrine use kaun dekh saktā ki yagāna hai vo yaktā jo duī kī bū bhī hotī to kahīñ do-chār hotā yagāna=unique ye masā.il-e-tasavvuf ye tirā bayān 'ġhālib' tujhe ham valī samajhte jo na bāda-ḳhvār hotā masā.il-e-tasavvuf= problems of mysticism/sufism, valī=saint, bāda-ḳhvār=drinker