It is in everything,
Every single being.
Open your eyes and you'll see
Soon you will believe me.
Beauty is found
Not only in sight but also in sound.
It is everywhere
In every breath of air.
Just take a second to see
Soon you will believe me.

My heart, roofless, it searches for the spirit.
Whisper of birds in the silent Valley,
Songs of the moonlight bloom,
There I find tranquility.
Drifting thousands leaf,
I see what other not see.
Dwelling hundreds rest,
Other see what I not see.

On a ridge by the ocean, the dragon respires.
Hide rugged as the coastline, against him the eons crash like waves.
Legend enchants the seabreeze, an inbreath to a shimmering trance.
Before the incandescent glow sparks like innocence into a fire.
The crystal-eyed call this Hollywood.
I discovered you there, costumed in flames, as the discharged smoke became your disguise.
Together, we performed as if we were in the dark.
Scorching exhales fogged your glasses and stifled my voice.
They say, “When you are mad, you see nothing”.  

All saints watched us in the dark this time.
Camera lenses covered your eyes and captured the revellers.
Tides ****** my mind and erased the crime.
Until they told me that I was on fire.
Misted glasses repelled your kaleidoscopic sublime.
So, from the stake, I rasped for nothing more than an ashen grey.

Orbs burning, in smoke's efflux, blindness grew.
My gilded urn haunted you, gold’s sharp sting.
Fairy-dust spells your name, always sparkling.
Fractured glass and lapsed cinders don’t brand you.
Only your frame in my pillows would do.
Like rogues caught in opulence, we're running.
They say, “When you are mad you see nothing.”
But madness is what you chose to see through.
And you saw blue in eyes I thought were grey
With iridescence glowing from your face.
You tasted darker than the fruits I stole.
And I’m the secret that you won’t betray,
Fused to your body by slumber’s light lace.
See through me, as my words sound in your bones.

Look here get this
Look there get that
Look at it and it looks you back
Look for it and it looks you blind

that everything you see
you had to put it there to find

Trying to find the light
But it seems to be that darkness wins
Every single time

A light so bright
It'll give a blind man sight
So close but yet so far
Like the moon on a dark winter night

I've tried,
I try to chase it down
I've ran,
I run
And ran some more
Chasing down a moon for it's light

A light so bright
It'll give a blind man sight

She liked how the carpet felt,
Scratchy against her cheek,
And how its texture grounded her to reality
When her thoughts were sweeping her away.

She sought after the smell of salt water and sand,
One deep breath in through the nose,
And her anxiety would slowly subside
As she listened to wave after wave crash against the shore.

She lost herself in soundtracks and sonatas,
The mournful requiems,
And the notes guided her along
To understanding the emotions she couldn’t put into words.

She collected novel after novel,
A colorful bouquet of covers and the crisp black of the text,
And she could never part with them
Because they painted pictures better than her eyes did.

She coveted the taste of hot coffee,
Sipped slowly and purposefully,
And how it forced her to take time for herself
Despite her propensity to skip the present in favor of the future.

Shine like it does

You set the sun against me

And here I fell

Only to find my feet

Along the blinding path

To dust, the persecuting heart returned

So too, the spirit flew

And like scales

The veil lifted

And I caught sight

Of something quite intangible

Yet, therein I found true freedom

In slaving for you

As a fisher of men

O God!
by Qateel Shifai
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Torture my heart, O God!
If you so desire, leave me a madman, O God!

Have I asked for the moon and stars?
Enlighten my heart and give my eyes sight, O God!

We have all seen this disk called the sun,
Now give us a real dawn, O God!

Either relieve our pains here on this earth
Or make my heart granite, O God!



Hereafter
by Qateel Shifai
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Since we met and parted, how can we sleep hereafter?
Lost in each others' remembrance, must we not weep hereafter?

Deluges of our tears will keep us awake all night:
Our eyelashes strung with strands of pearls, hereafter!

Thoughts of our separation will sear our grieving hearts
Unless we immerse them in the cooling moonlight, hereafter!

If the storm also deceives us, crying Qateel!,
We will scuttle our boats near forsaken shores, hereafter.



Keywords/Tags: Urdu, translation, translations, God, heart, eyes, sight, madman, moon, stars, tears, pearls, mrburdu

A dark room filled up
The shadows stretching
Like a full cup
In the darkest etching

The aroma of ink
The crumble of paper
The eyes that sink
The dusty vapor

The click of a pen
The bright desktop light
The typing again
The inscribing of graphite