Observations placeholder
Khusrau, Amir - Ghazal 1186
Identifier
020749
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Note 1 - I think the translation is not right here.
A description of the experience
The Selected Poetry of Amir Khusrau - In the Bazaar of Love
Ghazal 1186: qaba vu pirahan-i u ki mirasad tanash
When her robe and her shift touch her skin,
I'm envious of her robe,
and her robe, of her shift. She winks,
and people die, but does she grieve
the death of so many thousands
like me? Strange, one can get no sense
of the stamp of her mind,
but can see her spirit move
through the thin gauze of her body.
I feed off it, a parasite,
the way you tie people up in your curls.
Bring a rope and throw it around my throat
I crumble to dust on her street.
I have only one regret, that this dust
contaminated with sorrow
might reach her on the wind.
Her lover, her pilgrim, dies a martyr
to love. He is blessed, and his shroud
becomes a regal robe. To be joined
with her is no more than this: the lover
is killed and plunged into her tangling hair.
You didn't understand, Khusrau,
what your tongue asked of you. It was a hint
to take a sword and cut off its [Note 1] head.