I wasn’t like this before….
believe me i wasn’t always like this lacking common sense or looking insane like you i used to be clever in my days never…
“This Useless Heart”
Heart, since you embraced the mysteries, you have become useless for anything else. Go mad, don’t stay sane. People meditate to get something. All…
Faiz Ahmad Faiz: 1974 Interview from Radio Pakistan Archives
Faiz Ahmad Faiz In Program Fun aur Funkar = Panalist Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum, Hameed Akhtar, Qayyum Nazar, Sajjad Baqar Rizvi, Anees Nagi, Intizar…
For I do not recognise myself
ATP recently published a piece of mine on Rumi and Bulleh Shah. I have quoted a translation of Rumi’s verse (rendered by Reynold A.…
Occupy yourself with your own inward self! – Rumi
Oh heart, place no honey in the mouth of the ill! Speak not of entrancing eyes in the assembly of the blind! Although God…
Turned by the waves of Love – Rumi
Know that the wheeling heavens are turned by waves of Love: were it not for Love, the world would be frozen, stiff. How would…
If you don’t know the way – Rumi
If you have a touchstone, go ahead, choose; otherwise, go and devote yourself to one who knows the differences. Either you must have a…
Choosing to burn
My dear heart you’re a fire worshiper an explosive in flame call on the cupbearer to sprinkle the wine on you to soothe your…
Behold the faithfulness of spring
The red rose, which tears its cloak to shreds — I for one know its motive. The willow has let down its branches in…
Ba bazi-ye ishq mi bazam
Ba bazi-ye ishq mi bazam, sar-e bazaar sar bazam Rah-e mardan-e safa sazam, sar-e bazaar sar bazam Ba meydan asb mi tazam, to’i waqif…
Bulleh for our times
By Ali Abbas Mystifying is the turn of time, indeed. Refuted by clerics of his time, the same Bulleh Shah who was refused burial…
Faiz Ahmed Faiz: poet of peace
By Najam Sethi This year, South Asia celebrates the centenary of Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pakistan’s pre-eminent Urdu poet in the classical tradition of the…
when lilies sprout…
“The Shape of My Tongue” This mirror inside me shows . . . I can’t say what, but I can’t not know! I run…
if you are a man of this life
If you are a man of this life then march on this path like a man or retire and take refuge in your house…
Confused and distraught — Rumi
Rumi interpreted by Coleman Barks derived from Arberry’s translation You bind me, and I tear away in a rage to open out into air,…
The Beloved you’ve lost
…but you’ve chained me down stolen away my heart leaving yourself behind now i’ve lost my way my soul restless and head twisted all…
I am the call of Love — Rumi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You whispered in my ears like early spring: “I am the call of Love, can you hear me in the full grasses, in…
The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done…
Remembering Parveen Shakir
Naveed Abbas has contributed this beautiful tribute to a great poetess Parveen Shakir who died 16 years ago. Please check her poems and their…
In prayer continually
Rumi, once again The ritual prayer is five times daily, but the guide for lovers is the verse, they who are in prayer continually.*…