Unopened scarce, yet overblown, lie The hopes that rose-like round me grew, The lights are low, and more than lonely This life I lead apart from you. Come back, come back! I want you only, And you who loved me never knew.
You loved me, pleaded for compassion On all the pain I would not share; And I in weary, halting fashion Was loth to listen, long to care; But now, dear God! I faint with passion For your far eyes and distant hair.
Yes, I am faint with love, and broken With sleepless nights and empty days; I want your soft words fiercely spoken, Your tender looks and wayward ways-- Want that strange smile that gave me token Of many things that no man says.
Cold was I, weary, slow to waken Till, startled by your ardent eyes, I felt the soul within me shaken And long-forgotten senses rise; But in that moment you were taken, And thus we lost our Paradise!
Farewell, we may not now recover That golden "Then" misspent, passed by, We shall not meet as loved and lover Here, or hereafter, you and I. My time for loving you is over, Love has no future, but to die.
And thus we part, with no believing In any chance of future years. We have no idle self-deceiving, No half-consoling hopes and fears; We know the Gods grant no retrieving A wasted chance. Fate knows no tears.
Verses: Faiz Ulla
Just in the hush before dawn A little wistful wind is born. A little chilly errant breeze, That thrills the grasses, stirs the trees. And, as it wanders on its way, While yet the night is cool and dark, The first carol of the lark,-- Its plaintive murmurs seem to say "I wait the sorrows of the day."
Two Songs by Sitara, of Kashmir
Beloved! your hair was golden As tender tints of sunrise, As corn beside the River In softly varying hues. I loved you for your slightness, Your melancholy sweetness, Your changeful eyes, that promised What your lips would still refuse.
You came to me, and loved me, Were mine upon the River, The azure water saw us And the blue transparent sky; The Lotus flowers knew it, Our happiness together, While life was only River, Only love, and you and I.
Love wakened on the River, To sounds of running water, With silver Stars for witness And reflected Stars for light; Awakened to existence, With ripples for first music And sunlight on the River For earliest sense of sight.
Love grew upon the River Among the scented flowers, The open rosy flowers Of the Lotus buds in bloom-- Love, brilliant as the Morning, More fervent than the Noon-day, And tender as the Twilight In its blue transparent gloom.
Love died upon the River! Cold snow upon the mountains, The Lotus leaves turned yellow And the water very grey. Our kisses faint and falter, The clinging hands unfasten, The golden time is over And our passion dies away.
Away. To be forgotten, A ripple on the River, That flashes in the sunset, That flashed,--and died away.
Second Song: The Girl from Baltistan
Throb, throb, throb, Far away in the blue transparent Night, On the outer horizon of a dreaming consciousness, She hears the sound of her lover's nearing boat Afar, afloat On the river's loneliness, where the Stars are the only light; Hear the sound of the straining wood Like a broken sob Of a heart's distress, Loving misunderstood.
She lies, with her loose hair spent in soft disorder, On a silken sheet with a purple woven border, Every cell of her brain is latent fire, Every fibre tense with restrained desire. And the straining oars sound clearer, clearer, The boat is approaching nearer, nearer; "How to wait through the moments' space Till I see the light of my lover's face?"
Throb, throb, throb, The sound dies down the stream Till it only clings at the senses' edge Like a half-remembered dream. Doubtless, he in the silence lies, His fair face turned to the tender skies, Starlight touching his sleeping eyes. While his boat caught in the thickset sedge And the waters round it gurgle and sob, Or floats set free on the river's tide, Oars laid aside.
She is awake and knows no rest, Passion dies and is dispossessed Of his brief, despotic power. But the Brain, once kindled, would still be afire Were the whole world pasture to its desire, And all of love, in a single hour,-- A single wine cup, filled to the brim, Given to slake its thirst.
Some there are who are thus-wise cursed Times that follow fulfilled desire Are of all their hours the worst. They find no Respite and reach no Rest, Though passion fail and desire grow dim, No assuagement comes from the thing possessed For possession feeds the fire.
"Oh, for the life of the bright hued things Whose marriage and death are one, A floating fusion on golden wings. Alit with passion and sun!
"But we who re-marry a thousand times, As the spirit or senses will, In a thousand ways, in a thousand climes, We remain unsatisfied still."
As her lover left her, alone, awake she lies, With a sleepless brain and weary, half-closed eyes. She turns her face where the purple silk is spread, Still sweet with delicate perfume his presence shed. Her arms remembered his vanished beauty still, And, reminiscent of clustered curls, her fingers thrill. While the wonderful, Starlit Night wears slowly on Till the light of another day, serene and wan, Pierces the eastern skies.
Palm Trees by the Sea
Love, let me thank you for this! Now we have drifted apart, Wandered away from the sea,-- For the fresh touch of your kiss, For the young warmth of your heart, For your youth given to me.
Thanks: for the curls of your hair, Softer than silk to the hand, For the clear gaze of your eyes. For yourself: delicate, fair, Seen as you lay on the sand, Under the violet skies.
Thanks: for the words that you said,-- Secretly, tenderly sweet, All through the tropical day, Till, when the sunset was red, I, who lay still at your feet, Felt my life ebbing away,
Weary and worn with desire, Only yourself could console. Love let me thank you for this! For that fierce fervour and fire Burnt through my lips to my soul From the white heat of your kiss!
You were the essence of Spring, Wayward and bright as a flame: Though we have drifted apart, Still how the syllables sing Mixed in your musical name, Deep in the well of my heart!
Once in the lingering light, Thrown from the west on the Sea, Laid you your garments aside, Slender and goldenly bright, Glimmered your beauty, set free, Bright as a pearl in the tide.
Once, ere the thrill of the dawn Silvered the edge of the sea, I, who lay watching you rest,-- Pale in the chill of the morn Found you still dreaming of me Stilled by love's fancies possessed.
Fallen on sorrowful days, Love, let me thank you for this, You were so happy with me! Wrapped in Youth's roseate haze, Wanting no more than my kiss By the blue edge of the sea!
Ah, for those nights on the sand Under the palms by the sea, For the strange dream of those days Spent in the passionate land, For your youth given to me, I am your debtor always!
Song by Gulbaz
"Is it safe to lie so lonely when the summer twilight closes No companion maidens, only you asleep among the roses?
"Thirteen, fourteen years you number, and your hair is soft and scented, Perilous is such a slumber in the twilight all untented.
"Lonely loveliness means danger, lying in your rose-leaf nest, What if some young passing stranger broke into your careless rest?"
But she would not heed the warning, lay alone serene and slight, Till the rosy spears of morning slew the darkness of the night.
Young love, walking softly, found her, in the scented, shady closes, Threw his ardent arms around her, kissed her lips beneath the roses.
And she said, with smiles and blushes, "Would that I had sooner known! Never now the morning thrushes wake and find me all alone.
"Since you said the rose-leaf cover sweet protection gave, but slight, I have found this dear young lover to protect me through the night!"