The Poetic Notebook of Mullazade Zaigham of Laulab

(11)

All high and low are unaware of khudi: is it a mosque or tavern?

The head preacher has withheld this secret from us: the Harem itself is the moth moving round Harem’s lamp.

Faith and kufr, only talisman of ignorance, talking of Shaykh and Brahman is all myth;

O God, may the valley have a dervish Whose faqr works Moses-like;

How long would they remain hidden from the world? The unique gems that the Wooler Lake has in its depth.

(12)

The living nations of the world have won their laurels, the world transformed through the dynamism of their acts;

the astrologer’s calendar of the future is false, the old stars have fallen away.

The world’s heart is so fiery that river waves shoot out stars.

The earth is experiencing tremors after tremors, the warnings of Nature are but too clear.

Khidr, standing by the Wooler, is thinking: When will the Himalayas’ springs burst forth?