Love
I ask that God in justice punish me
Translated by Inayat Khan and Jessie Duncan Westbrook (1919) · From Hindustani Lyrics (1919)
I ask that God in justice punish me
With death, if my love waver or grow less;
Faithful am I indeed--
How can you comprehend such faithfulness?
To you alone I offer up my heart,
To any other what have I to give?
No light demand I make,
What answer will you grant that I may live?
If on the last dread Day of Reckoning
I think of you, and in my heart there shine
The beauty of your face,
God's Beatific Vision shall be mine.
Once I had friends, now none are left to me;
I see none else but you, because my heart
Has wholly fled to you,
And thus I walk the ways of Earth apart.
I, Asif, am the chief of sinners held,
This dark dishonour will I not deny,
But glory in my shame;
Where is another sinner such as I?
Cite this poem
MLA
Asif. “I ask that God in justice punish me.” Translated by Inayat Khan and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/asif/3/.
Chicago
Asif. “I ask that God in justice punish me.” Translated by Inayat Khan and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/asif/3/.
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