In The Desert of My Longing - Faiz Ahmed Faiz
In the desert of my longing, shimmer
The shadows of your voice,
The mirages of your lips.
In the desert of my longing,
Under the dust and ashes of distance
Bloom the jasmine and rose of your proximity.
For somewhere very close Wafts the heat of your breathing Smoldering in its own aroma, Breath after slow breath. And on the horizon glistens, Drop after drop, Dew of your intoxicating glance.
With tenderness, as the shadow Of your remembrance places a hand On my heart’s face, it appears as if the day Of separation has ended, and the night Of union is right here.
Translated from the Urdu. Listed to Iqbal Bano sing the ghazal here.
Translations
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Lending Out Books - Hal Sirowitz
You're always giving, my therapist said.
You have to learn how to take. Whenever
you meet a woman, the first thing you do
is lend her your books. You think she'll
have to see you again in order to return them.
But what happens is, she doesn't have the time
to read them, & she's afraid if she sees you again
you'll expect her to talk about them, & will
want to lend her even more. So she
cancels the date. You end up losing
a lot of books. You should borrow hers.
Comments: I found this pithy poem in "Good Poems", an excellent anthology put together out of poems Garrison Keillor reads on NPR's "The Writer's Almanac" everyday. It goes into the Big Book because it nearly sums up my minor forays into the "dating and mating" game. Only in my case, the books weren't lent but gifted.
Big Book Of Poetry
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A Morning Thought
Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who forgives you -- out of love -- takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice.
- Dag Hammarskjold in "Markings"
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