Love

Mine eyes were shut

by Bahadur Shah Zafar 1768–1862

Translated by Inayat Khan and Jessie Duncan Westbrook (1919) · From Hindustani Lyrics (1919)

Love

Mine eyes were shut
And yet I saw the shining vision gleam;
Now that mine eyes are opened, know I not
Was it a thought that held me--or a dream?

Long to myself I said--It will be well,
When I can see her, I will tell my pain:
Now she is here, what is there left to tell?
No griefs remain.

Faithless she is to me, and pitiless,
Despotic and tyrannical she is,
I looked for love, I looked for tenderness,
I leant on vain impossibilities.

I listened to thy voice that stole to me
Across the curtain where thou satst apart,
Desire came like a restless ecstasy,
A sorcery that fell upon my heart.

When I had burst my prison, and was free,
I saw no fetters held me, and I found,
O Zafar, that these chains that shackle me
Are ties of self wherewith my soul is bound.

MLA

Zafar, Bahadur Shah. “Mine eyes were shut.” Translated by Inayat Khan and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/bahadur-shah-zafar/1/.

Chicago

Zafar, Bahadur Shah. “Mine eyes were shut.” Translated by Inayat Khan and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/bahadur-shah-zafar/1/.

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