Pared from clouds, These pieces of paper I arrange and rearrange. What is this that has happened?

With dream ropes, Tied to the mast of night, I haul in pieces of moon. What is this that has happened?

One time when I glimpsed You beyond a curtain Of falling water It seemed as if I saw Lightning glitter. Since then you rain In my dreams, since then You talk much Laughing.

Listen: from him, who doesn’t Know you, ask and find Out what your name is? What is this that has happened to me?

See with skin Naked like the rosy Haze at daybreak Don’t walk around These hills like This. Don’t bathe in The salty seas like This.

Moonlight spreads over The waking hours of the day. And on the tender skin Of fruit, I keep carving Your name. What has happened to me?

(A song loosely translated from Hindi)

[1]

Your eyes hoard a few fragrant Secrets. More beautiful than you Stand your thoughts.

You talk and somewhere flowers shoot Forth. Do clouds meet the mountain Ranges, somewhere in your eyes? Even your silences are your language.

[2]

It is again that night, That night of dreams. And all night long, I shall dream of you, All night long.

Tonight in your innocent sleep If you see a dream, Summon me to that room Hidden behind the curtains Of your eyelids.

These dreams are of glass, And will pierce one’s eyes. So lift them gently with Your eye lashes.

[3]

These days my feet hardly Touch the ground. Tell me Do you ever encounter me, flying in the wind?

[4]

With simple fables and night rain The valleys are full. How strange my heart is full too!

On the trees leaves, On the leaves water, Water of tears.

Close to each other were our hearts. We had met before, But are still strangers after meetings.

It stops and pauses And then it pours, Mad rain is dancing on the clouds.

[5]

I have left some luggage Behind in your room: Some of those cold winter days And wrapped in one my letters, A night I spent your arms.

Extinguish that night. Return my things.

And from that fall, Sounds of leaves’ Footsteps I still wear Like earrings. That branch We stopped under together Is still spasming in the wind.

Cut down that branch. Return my things.

Under a single umbrella, Caught in sudden rain, We were half wet and half dry. I must have been on the left, For there is my wet heart Lying perhaps under your bed.

Send back that heart. Return my things.

Translated from Hindi Film Song Lyrics

O Govind – the Sustainer of Earth, O Gopal – the Cowherd, Enter at least now for this life is ebbing.

On the banks of the river Sindhu I sing for you, O Lord. Here I had allowed every current To set me adrift.

And in the middle of the current As my boat began to rapidly sink I called out to you, O Boatman And you, kindly, took me to the shore.

Surdas says this, “The only steady refuge In this world of whirlpools is the dark skinned god.”

Loosely re-worked from Bhraj Bhasa (a dialect of Hindi)