Mir Dard

The book calls Mir Dard the author of a famous Urdu diwan, skilled in the sacred music sung at the assemblies of the Sufis, who lived the life of a sage; the Padishah often came to him for counsel, though he himself never sought the Emperor’s court.

The one piece given here is drawn from Hindustani Lyrics (London: The Sufi Publishing Society, 1919), in the English verse of Inayat Khan and Jessie Duncan Westbrook. It is a free rendering, not a literal translation, and the original Urdu poem is untitled; it is named here by its first line.