Love Poem by Showkat Ahmad Wani

Upon the first of days when Eden fell,
The tale of love in sorrow's whisper sighed.
The darkened tress, the eyes were arrows keen,
A wall of stone arose to bar the way.

The rooftops burned beneath the sleepless night,
As flames devoured the hollow hush of time.
Like moths in fire, so life must yield to love,
And perish in the vastness of its sea.

A sea is love, where stones are turned to pearls,
Yet, should it die, each pearl will fade to stone.
It shines as light that brings the dawn to bloom,
Yet holds the dusk concealed within its breast.

Each bud that sways, each rose that softly glows,
Each nightingale that mourns upon the branch,
Each wound that bleeds, each heart that breaks apart,
Each cup of dust, each form reduced to ash.

Through drowning waves, the might of kings is lost,
Yet prophets' lamps in ruins brightly burn.
The sun is bound in love's unyielding chains,
For majesty is clothed in beggar's robes.

No drunken bliss, no sound of silver strings,
No mystic's trance, nor storm upon the sea,
No beggar's shrine, nor tower raised in stone—
But love alone, the hidden law of God.

Through love was torn the robe of Rūmī's soul,
Through love arose the fire of Iqbāl's dream.
Through love, the heart dissolves, the mind is freed,
Through love, the sky is split, the stars descend.

In Nimrod's fire, love's vow remained unscorched,
If Satan raged, then Adam rose divine.
A cure is love, its breath revives the soul,
For life is naught, save love illuminates.
(23April,2003)