Momin Khan Momin

Momin of Delhi is described in the book as the author of six long masnawis, skilled in medicine, astronomy and astrology, and deeply read in poetry. He is said at first to have lived a gay and reckless life, and in old age to have given himself to prayer and fasting, acquiring great contemporary fame; his work is called the most delicate flower of Urdu expression.

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.