Come, let me draw your image on this silk, so that I may keep it close to my heart and stare at it. So that when I am far from you, still will my eyes glow, like the embers of my memory whose bitter smoke stings my eyes, those embers that somehow still give warmth long after the caravan has departed. My eyes are so black, but how brightly they burn. What is the sun without darkness; what is darkness without the sun?"Why are you silent, has the cat got your tongue? Do you finally admit defeat?"
Being swift of blood she smiled and said, coquettishly: "why these distinctions, your victory is my victory!" And I don't know what to say in your presence. I get all tongue twisted"
[Yes, your tongue is so twisted!] "For once you speak the truth, dear child!"
"But I thought images were forbidden amongst your tribe?"
"Yes, but since meeting you I have become a Hindu!"
I am the Tigris without any fish
I am a fish without the Tigris.
Her tongue is Turkish, and I don't know Turkish-
how nice it would be if her tongue were in my mouth!
Learn from the Hindu [the black one] how to die of love-
it is not easy to enter the fire while alive.
My heart is a fire temple when I think of you,and on it is your brand, like a black Hindu who tends the fire.
The night has died, and the sun
has kindled the fire to burn the black one.
~~~~~~
For the literary blind, the moles:
That mole that sits in the corner of her lips is,
as it were, a Hindu child that fell into a sugar bowl.
O moon-faced Turk-how would it be if one night
you would come into my room and say "I must stay as your guest"?
[Analysis: The Turk is the fair one, the beloved; the Hindu is the "slave", the dark one, the infidel]
You became enraged when I told you: "You are my Turk"
I am sorry for that word-I am your Hindu!
5 comments:
oh b.,
I envy whomever you wrote this for (Roxane?)
Indeed, what is the sun without the black? What is the black without the sun? Nothingness. There would be no feeling, no love, no sin but no rightness either. Nothing.
To have this devotion and passion, especially if returned, is something few can claim. And should be fought for without resignation.
-fl
fl, hello.
Nope, it wasn't written for anyone in particular. Most of the 'stories' are just made up things -sometimes in response to an image or a text that someone else writes . Quite a lot of the times, though, it happens to be something from Roxana's blog because I find it so fascinating.
:-)
at first I couldn't understand why fl asked about Roxane, but then I solved the mystery, it is because of the painting title, isn't it? and knowing your love for persian miniatures/poems/souls whatever, b, I am willing to bet that this is about Alexander's Roxane. well?
[I have to confess here that I like my name, and this also because it reminds me of her]
I agree with fl, the text is very beautiful, now I have to regret that you didn't write that for me, b :-)
this is one of the most amazing comparisons I've ever come across: That mole that sits in the corner of her lips is,
as it were, a Hindu child that fell into a sugar bowl.
is this a common image in hindu poetry, b? or have you made that up, entirely by yourself? [sorry if I sound distrustful :-P]
anyway, I've had fun today, reading this, so thanks to both of you :-) and b, thank you for saying that my blog is fascinating, you humble me.
Gosh, I didn't realise that both of you would be so eagle-eyed!
Just a few points-though I hate writing about my posts:
this was supposed to be a continuation of the soldier and the queen 'series' but i didn't want to write 'the queen and the soldier again' again!
I liked this picture because of the black suns abover her head.
But i wanted to say something else that is important (btw Roxana, all of the lines are taken/borrowed from poets-not mine) and it's this: in much of the poetry there is this deliberate confusion as to whether the lover is being addressed or God (you may have picked up in an the earlier post that i used the word "You" rather than "you" to indicate this)
Generally I'm a bit wary of labeling these posts under 'religion' or making this connection explicit because i know some of the 'religious' take offence to this and I try and avoid conflict with nutcases!
the links between such 'thought'/poetry in muslim circles and hindu thought/poetry is a fascinating questiion. A sikh colleague here is doing work on just this very topic. A few weeks back we went to a 15th century sufi shrine in a village -the founder of one of the major sufi orders. and at such places it would be common to have hindu devotees. That was the syncretic tradition and it is being destroyed by the wahabis and the fundamentalists. I'll try and post pictures if either of you are interested.
Hope all else is well.
b.
putting your religious hat on, b? :-P
but yes, I had thought so too!
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