Saleh Badrah Poems

It's fruitless in this bleakness to seek zest
Or cheerfulness to brighten up your gloom:
For what bird here will ever build its nest?
What fragrant rose in here will ever bloom?
...

My soul stood up today and said:
Your heart is full of sorrow.

I know, I said,
...

Each wrinkle in his ancient face
Bespeaks a monumental deed.
Serenely there with pride he sits,
No longer longing to succeed:
...

Nan-in, the sage, one day received
A guest who'd come in search of wisdom.
...

For things of beauty
constantly am I searching,
despite the bleakness.
...

They say that they have come to set us free
And that they're bringing us Democracy.
Democracy? That dainty entity
We read about in Greek philosophy,
...

Culture is the cultivation of the self,
The weeding out of inner rotten weeds,
The getting rid of inner 'stony rubbish',
The steady noiseless maturation of the intellect,
...

Little bulbul at my window,
To what purpose are you singing?
Can't you hear the noise and clamour?
Can't you sense the disaccord?
...

The mind is like a running brook
With mud and precious gems replete:

To spot the gems, stir not the mud;
...

Should you, my soul, who sailed to distant shores
And traced the founts of sweet serenity,
Be vexed and irked by those insidious frauds
Whose souls are fraught with spite and enmity?
...