In the evening's serenity the Ravi melodious is
Do not ask me what the condition of my heart is

This became message of prostrations rise and fall to me
The whole world became precincts of the haram to me

I am standing at the bank of the running water
However, I do not know where I am standing

The red wine has colored the skirt of the evening
The aged sky is holding wine cup in its trembling hand

The day's fast moving caravan is advancing to its end
The evening's twilight is the sun's flower so to say

In the distance those solitary structures are standing
They are the minarets of the Mughal emperors' tombs

This place is the tale of revolution's tyranny
This place is some book of the bygone age

This place is a silent orchestra so to say
Not trees ! But it is a serene assembly so to say

A fast moving boat is sailing on its surface
Whose sailor is fighting fiercely with the waves

This boat is in fast speed like the sight
Getting out of sight, it has gone far away

The ship of Man's life is sailing in the same way
It is present as well as hidden in eternity's sea

It never gets acquainted with defeat
It is concealed from sight but is not effaced !

O Child with moth-like nature , "How strange that
You keep gazing at the flame of the candle for hours

What is this movement, when you are in my lap?
Are you intending to embrace the light?

Though your tiny heart is surprised at this spectacle
But this is recognition of some object already seen!¹

The candle is but a flame, you are the Light embodied
Ah! In this assembly that is manifest, you are concealed ²

It is not known why the Nature's hand made it manifest!
And concealed you in the dark soil's mantle

Your light has been concealed under the veil of Intellect! ³
The veil of Cognition is a mere mist to the wise eye!

What is called life really a mirage it is
A dream, a swoon, an ecstasy, oblivion it is

The Nature's assembly is the Beauty's boundless ocean
For the discerning eye every drop is the Beauty's storm

Beauty is in the frightening silence of the mountain
In shedding of sun's light, and in night's darkness

It is in the morning sky's mirror-like glitter
In the night's darkness and in the twilight's floridity

It is in the disappearing relics of the old magnificence
In the small child's effort to commence speaking

It is in the harmony of the denizens of the rose-garden
In the nest-building efforts of the tiny little birds

In the mountain stream, in the ocean's freedom is Beauty
In the city, the forest, the wilderness, the habitation is Beauty

The soul but longing for some lost object is
Or else why is it lamenting in wilderness like a bell ?

It is restless even in this general splendor of Beauty
Its life is like a fish out of water

Early in the evening a song bird
Sitting on a branch was singing

It saw a glowing object on the ground
Considering it a fire fly flew down to it

The fire-fly said to the singing bird
"O singing bird, do not kill a helpless creature,

Who gave chirping to you, and fragrance to the rose
The same God gave the glittering light to me

I am clad in the apparel of light
I am the ñur of the insects' world

If your chirping is the ear's pleasure
My brightness also is the sight's pleasure

Nature has given light to my wings
It has given fascinating voice to you

He taught singing to your beak
He made me the torch of the garden

He bestowed glitter upon me, voice upon you
Conferred warmth upon me and music upon you

Warmth is not the opposite of music
Everywhere warmth is the associate of music

The assembly of existence is based on these alone
All the world's manifestations are through these alone

The world's assembly is based on harmony alone
The bloom of this garden is based on this alone"

Today dark clouds have appeared from the east again
Mount Sarban ¹ has become covered with darkness again

As the sun's face became hidden under the clouds
Cool breeze also came riding on the steed of clouds

There are no thunder claps, silent are these clouds
Strange in its tranquillity is this tavern of dark clouds

It has brought everlasting joy's message for the garden
It has come to stitch pearls to the jacket of rose

The flowers which were fading by sun's heat freshened up
Those which were sleeping in the earth's bosom woke up

With the wind's force the cloud rose, advanced and flowed
Some dark clouds rose up, the clouds burst open into rain!

The camp of the mountains' trees is wonderful
Strollers in valleys should stay among its trees

The grandeur of Ghalib¹ has remained buried since long
Mahdi Majruh¹ is the cemetery's resident since long

Death broke the decanter of Amir ¹ in a strange country
The assembly's eye still has the ecstasy of the wine of Amir

However, today O Companion! The whole garden is mourning!
Lighted candle is extinguished, literary assembly is mourning!

The Delhi's nightingale made its nest in such a garden
Where all the world's nightingales are singing in a chorus

Ah Dagh has gone! His bier is on our shoulders
The last poet of Jahanabad ² is finally silent

Gone is that smartness! Gone is that humor of style!
The fire of youth was veiled in the old age's camphor³

Every heart has the longing which the language of Dagh had
This Lailah was unveiled there, she is behind the veil here

Who will ask zephyr now the secret of silence of the rose?
Who in the garden will understand the secret of nightingale's wailing?

In his elegant imagination he was not unaware of reality
The bird's eye remained focused on the nest even in flight

Others will show us the subtleties of linguistic thought
The elevated elegance of the sagacity of their thought

They will make us cry painting the picture of time's vicissitudes
Or will show us the new world of their imagination

Nightingales of Shiraz ⁴ also will be born in this garden
There will be hundreds of magicians and masters of miracles

Thousands of ÿzars⁵ will rise from the temple of poetry
The new cup-bearers will serve wine from the new goblets

Many commentaries of the book of Love will be written
There will be many interpretations of the youths' dreams

However, who will draw the exact picture of Love?
The master having departed who will enchant the heart

I am sowing the seeds of tears in the soil of verse
You also cry, O Delhi's soil! I am crying for Dagh!

Ah! O The Ka'bah of the literateur's ⁶ religion
Your garden has been ruined by autumn today

That colorful rose of yours has departed like fragrance
That is, the abode of Urdu has become deprived of Dagh

Perhaps not much attraction was in the homeland's soil
That full moon has set in the soil of the Dakkan ⁷

The cup-bearers have left, the tavern has become deserted,
Only the memorable personality of Delhi's assembly has been left

The tyranny of death makes longing shed tears of blood
The archer of death shoots out arrows in the dark

However, the tongue cannot open in complaint
Autumn's style is also a prelude to garden's existence⁹

The one universal law creates all such results
Exit of fragrance from the garden, that of the gardener from the world

May I tell the truth O Brahman! If it does not displease you
The idols of your temple have become anachronistic

You have learnt grudge with your own people from the idols
God also has taught fighting to Muslim preachers

Becoming tired, I finally abandoned the temple and the Haram
I abandoned the preacher's sermons, as well as your stories

You take the stone idols to contain God
Every speck of the homeland's dust is holy to me

Come! Let us again roll up the curtains of strangeness
Let us unite the separated ones, let us remove the disunion

The heart's habitation is lying barren since long
Let us build a new temple in this country

Let our shrine be higher than the world's shrines
Let us make its spire as high as the sky

Let our morning's incantations be so sweet every morning
That all worshipers be ecstatic with the Love's wine

The power and tranquillity is in the devotees' song
The salvation of the denizens of the earth is in Love

The land in which Chisht ¹ delivered the message of God
The garden in which Nanak ² sang the song of Tawhid of God
The land which the Tatars³ adopted as their homeland
For which people of Hijaz abandoned the Arabian wilderness⁴
That same is my homeland, that same is my homeland

Whose wisdom had left the Greeks bewildered
Which gave knowledge and skill to the entire world
Whose soil had been endowed by God with the elixir's effect ⁵
Which had filled the pocket of the Turks with diamonds ⁶
That same is my homeland, that same is my homeland

Which illuminated and established in the milky way again
The stars which had fallen from the sky of Persia
The House from which the world had heard Tawhid's tune
From where the Holy Prophet had felt cool breeze ⁷
That same is my homeland, that same is my homeland

Whose denizens are Kalims⁸, whose mountains the Sinais ⁹ are
Where the Prophet Nuh's boat and its occupants had landed ¹⁰
The land whose elegance is the stairway to the sky
Living in whose environment is like living in Paradise
That same is my homeland, that same is my homeland

Should I abandon the pleasure of sun's and moon's company?
And should I abandon this service of conveying dawn's message ¹?

For me the height of the world of stars is not good
For me lowliness of earth's denizens is better than this height

What is the sky? Is the uninhabited homeland of mine
The tattered skirt of the morning is my shroud

My destiny is dying and being born every day
Drinking morning draft of wine from the hand of death's cup-bearer

This service, this honor, this elegance is not good
Darkness is better than this ephemeral illumination

If  I had the power, I would have never become a planet
I would have become the shining pearl in the ocean's depth

There also if I would have become weary of the waves' struggle
Leaving the ocean I would have become some neck's decoration²

The pleasure of brightness is in being some beauty's ornament
In being the ornament of the crown of the princess of Caesar³

As the fortune of a piece of stone gained ascendancy
It did not stop short of being jewel of Sulaiman's ⁴ ring

But breaking is the end of such things in the world
Breaking is the end of the invaluable pearls

Real life is the one which is not acquainted with death
What good is the life in which there is demand of death?

If this is the end of being the decoration of the universe
Why should I not fall as dew on some flower?

I should live as shining specks in the decoration of someone's forehead
I should live in the sparks of some oppressed person's sighs

As tear I be entangled in the eye lashes of someone
Why should I not drip from the eyes of that lady?

Whose husband, clad in the chains armor is departing
To battlefield, compelled by the love of the homeland

Who may be exhibiting hope and despair's spectacle
Whose silence may be putting speech to embarrassment

To whom pleasing the husband may give the strength for patience
And to whose eyes' modesty may give the power to speak

Whose rosy cheeks at departure's time may be turned pale
Attraction of whose beauty by separation's sorrow may be enhanced

However hard she may control but still I may drip
I may spill over from the cup of the tearful eye

After mixing with dust I may get eternal life
And departing, I may show warmth of Love to the world

The fire-fly's light is shining in the garden's abode
Or a candle is lighted in the assembly of flowers ?

Has some star flown down from the sky?
Or has a moon's ray been brought to life?

Or the emissary of the day has come to the night's kingdom?
Has become prosperous in foreign land was unknown in homeland

Has some button fallen from the cloak of the moon?
Or some speck has become prominent in the sun's shirt?

Was it the concealed glimpse of the Eternal Beauty?
Which was brought by Nature out of solitude into the assembly

Darkness as well as light is in this little moon
Now it is out of eclipse, now it is in eclipse

The moth is an insect, as the fire-fly is an insect
The former needs light, the latter is light's embodiment

Nature gave beauty to everything in the universe
It gave agitation to moth, it gave light to fire-fly

It gave flowery music to the speechless bird
Having given tongue to the rose¹ taught it to be silent

The beauty of twilight's spectacle was decaying
Brightening up this fairy, a short life it gave

It gave color to the dawn like a beautiful bride
Clothing it in red dress gave it the mirror of dew

It gave shade to the tree, gave flight to the wind
It gave flow to water, gave restlessness to waves

This distinction but is a way of our thinking
The fire-fly's day is the same as our night

The Eternal Beauty's reflection is present in everything
It is speech in man. It is blooming in the flower bud

This moon in the sky is the poet's heart so to say
It is moonlight there what here the prick of pathos is

The manners of speech have deceived us, otherwise
Song is nightingale's fragrance, flower's fragrance is its song

Concealed in plurality is the secret of the Unity
What is fire-fly's brightness is flower's fragrance

Why should this difference be occasion for dissensions?
When the Primeval Day's silence be concealed in everything