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Translation:

By Kartar Singh Duggal

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I must utter what comes to my lips.

Speaking the truth creates chaos.
Telling a lie saves one scarce.
I am afraid of both these.
Afraid I am both here and there.

I must utter what comes to my lips.

He who has this secret known.
He must peep into his own
Lives He in the shrine of peace
Where there are no ups and downs

I must utter what comes to my lips.

It is indeed a slippery park.
I take precautions in the dark
De inside and see for yourself
Why this wild search afar?

I must utter what comes to my lips.

It is a matter of good form
A norm to which we all conform
It’s God in every soul you see
If he is in me why not in you?

I must utter what comes to my lips.

(Says Bulleh) the master is not far from me
Without him there none could be
That explains the suffering and pain
But mine is not the eye to see
I must say what comes to my lips.

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Arieb Azhar

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Why is it that the yearning for the Loved One (i.e., the Holy Prophet) is especially strong today?
Why is my heart sadder today than even before?
Why does longing penetrate every tissue of mine?
And why are the eyes shedding tears like a shower of rain?

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His shining face appeared to me in a vision,
And fragrance emanated in profusion from His tresses;
I fainted from the sight of these visions;
The hordes of his eyes overpowered me.

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His face shines like the full moon;
A brilliant light radiates from his brow;
His hair is black,
and his eyes are bewitching and intoxicated.

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His two eye-brows are like cross-bows,
Hurling darts of pointed eye-lashes (in all directions);
His lips are red like rubies of Yemen;
His white teeth like a string of pearls.

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I am not sure whether I should call his face the essence of life;
Or life of the entire universe;
The truth is that it is (like) the glory of God,
From which all other (worldly) glories originated,

( This refers to the Holy Prophet’s well-known hadith:
“Allah created (everything from my light, and I am from the Light of Allah”)

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This face (of the Prophet) emerged from the Faceless One (i.e., Allah);
The Faceless One manifests Himself through this face.
The Colourless (Reality) has been revealing itself through this image,
Ever since Unity exploded into Diversity.

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It is this face (of the Holy Prophet) that guides (mankind) to the path of Faceless One (i.e., Allah);
Nay (not the path only but) to the Ultimate Reality Itself.
However, understanding this (secret) is beyond the capacity of the simpletion;
Only the select few succeed in discovering and capturing the Pearl (of Truth).

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May this Face (of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H)) remain before my eyes,
In my last moments (of life) and on the Resurrection Day!
Then (also) in my grave, and at the time of crossing the (razor-sharp) Bridge (on the Judgment Day as a test to separate the virtuous ones from the sinners);
Only then shall the fake ones become pure (in the sight of Allah).

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Thou (O Holy Prophet) hast been blessed (by Allah) with the promise to grant thy desire (in full);
And we (thy humble followers) have full faith in Allah’s assurance that thou shalt be happy with the Bounty of Allah.
The Gracious One (we hope) shall declare us successful (in the test of earthly life);
Because we have correctly understood the Divine words: “Intercede and thy intercession shall be accepted”.

(Reference here is to verse 5 of Surah XCIII of the Holy Quran:
“And presently (i.e., in the Hereafter, as also in this world) thy Lord shall grant unto thee (O Prophet ! rich and abundant reward) so that thou shalt be well-pleased)

(Note: Here the reference is to the Prophet’s divinely inspired hadith (hadith-e-Qudsi), in which Allah reassures the Prophet (P.B.U.H) with the words i.e., his intercession for the forgiveness of sinning believers shall be accepted by Allah on the Judgment Day)

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Be gracious enough to remove from thy face the sheet of Yemen (O Prophet !),
And grant us a glimpse of thy endearing face.
Repeat once again those sweet words,
Which thou hadst uttered in the valley of Hamra.

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Come (once again) from thy cell to Mosque,
For everyone longs for a glimpse of thy image full of light;
(And) denizens of both the worlds (i.e., this world and the Hereafter) are laying their eyes in thy path
Human beings, angels, the houris and the fairies.

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For the ones yearning and pining (for a glimpse of thine);
Who are ready to sacrifice (their lives) for thy sake;
For these slaves ready to sell themselves out without any price (in thy path);
May those moments of bliss come back once again!

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Glory to Allah, who created thee (O Holy Prophet!) in the most beautiful, the best, and the most perfect mould.
Who is (the humble) Meher Ali to chant thy praises;
How (presumptuous and) impudent his eyes are to aspire to the heights of thy love!

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Abida Parveen

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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

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Owais Raza Qadri

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Atif Aslam

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If I Adore You

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If I adore You out of fear of Hell,
Burn me in Hell!
If I adore you out of desire for Paradise,
Lock me out of Paradise.
But if I adore you for Yourself alone,
Do not deny to me Your eternal beauty.

Rabia al-Basri

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(Other Women’s Voices)

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Reality

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In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?

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~ Rabia al-Basri

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Love

I have loved Thee with two loves -
a selfish love and a love that is worthy of Thee.
As for the love which is selfish,
Therein I occupy myself with Thee,
to the exclusion of all others.
But in the love which is worthy of Thee,
Thou dost raise the veil that I may see Thee.
Yet is the praise not mine in this or that,
But the praise is to Thee in both that and this.

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~ Rabia al Basri

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Australian composer and keyboard artist Graeme Revell brings the words of the mystical Sufi Rumi to the groove, assisted by vocal artists from all over the world. As Enigma mixed Gregorian chants and sexuality in their ambient dance MCMXC A.D., so does Revell with Rumi’s esctatic poetry. Similar albums are Richard Souther’s Vision I and Illumination, both using the works of Hildegard von Bingen. Deep Forest used pygmy songs in the grooves. The familiar dance beats can be trance-inducing by themselves, and on Vision II, these are often morphed with gutsy Middle Eastern rhythms; seldom does Revell chose the more heady, yet stately, Sufi dance cadence.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the world’s prime exponent of qawwali, sings passionately on three tracks. Noa, an Israeli vocalist, sings a liquidy lullaby on “The Ocean,” which she translated into Hebrew. Lori Garson speaks the poems in the now-obligatory sexy voice and British accent (she is from the U.S.). Is the blatant orgasmic breathing necessary on “The Breath (The Color of Dying)”? On the plus side, this album offers many incredible performances and trippy tracks. Surely, it will serve to introduce a new audience to the works of Rumi and the notion of ecstatic spirituality. Great lyrics, after all.

(Review by: Carol Wright, All Music Guide)

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Tracks:

01. Seek in Your Heart
02. Don’t Go Back to Sleep
03. The Ocean
04. Eye Goes Blind
05. The Breath (The Color of Dying)
06. The Center
07. Lovers/At Night We Fall
08. Nine Layers of Illusion
09. Desert Dusk
10. Don’t Go Back to Sleep (Reprise)
11. The Great Mystery

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[ Download Complete Album ]

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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

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Shad Bashay

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Maqam-e-Hoo

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Na man behooda girde kocha
Wa bazaar megardam
Mazaj-e-ashiqee daram paye
dildar megardam

Khudaya rahm kon bar man
Pareeshan waar megardam

Khata karam gonahgaram
Ba hale zaar megardam

Sharabe showq menosham
Ba girde yaar megardam

Sukhan mastana megoyam
Walay hooshyaar megardam

~ Rumi

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Translation:

by Farah Aziz

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No I am not roaming aimlessly
around the streets and bazaar
I am a lover searching for his beloved

God have mercy on me
I am walking around troubled

I have done wrong and sinned
and am walking around wounded

I have drunk the wine of desire
and am strolling around beloved

Though I may seem drunk
I am quite sober

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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

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Part 1

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Part 2

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Farid Ayaz Qawal

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Mohmmed Nasir

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Part 1

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Part 2

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15 selected poems

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1

Time bringeth swift to end
The rout men keep;
Death’s wolf is nigh to rend
These silly sheep.

See, how in pride they go
With lifted head,
Till Fate with a sudden blow
Smiteth them dead.

2

Thou who lovest, life a crow,
Winter’s chill and winter’s snow,
Ever exiled from the vale’s
Roses red, and nightingales:

Take this moment to thy heart!
When the moment shall depart,
Long thou ‘lt seek it as it flies
With a hundred lamps and eyes.

3

The heavenly rider passed;
The dust rose in the air;
He sped; but the dust he cast
Yet hangeth there.

Straight forward thy vision be,
And gaze not left or night;
His dust is here, and he
In the Infinite.

4

Who was he that said
The immortal spirit is dead,
Or how dared he say
Hope’s sun hath passed away?

An enemy of the sun,
Standing his roof upon,
Bound up both his eyes
And cried: ‘Lo, the sun dies!’

5

‘Who lifteth up the spirit,
Say, who is he?’
‘Who gave in the beginning
This life to me.

Who hoodeth, life a falcon’s,
Awhile mine eyes,
But presently shall loose me
To hunt my prize.’

6

As salt resolved in the ocean
I was swallowed in God’s sea,
Past faith, past unbelieving,
Past doubt, past certainty.

Suddenly in my bosom
A star shone clear and bright;
All the suns of heaven
Vanished in that star’s light.

7

Flowers every night
Blossom in the sky;
Peace in the Infinite;
At peace am I.

Sighs a hundredfold
From my heart arise;
My heart, dark and cold,
Flames with my sighs.

8

He that is my souls’ repose
Round my heart encircling goes,
Round my heart and soul of bliss
He encircling is.

Laughing from my earthy bed
Like a tree I lift my head,
For the Fount of Living mirth
Washes round my earth.

9

The breeze of the morn
Scatters musk in its train,
Fragrance borne
From my fair love’s lane.

Ere the world wastes,
Sleep no more: arise!
The caravan hastes,
The sweet scent dies.

10

If life be gone, fresh life to you
God offereth,
A life eternal to renew
This life of death.

The Fount of Immorality
In Love is found;
The come, and in this boundless sea
Of Love be drowned.

11

Happy was I
In the pearl’s heart to lie;
Till, lashed by life’s hurricane,
Life a tossed wave I ran.

The secret of the sea
I uttered thunderously;
Like a spent cloud on the shore
I slept, and stirred no more.

12

He set the world aflame,
And laid me on the same;
A hundred tongues of fire
Lapped round my pyre.

And when the blazing tide
Engulfed me, and I sighed,
Upon my mouth in haste
His hand He placed.

13

Though every way I try
His whim to satisfy,
His every answering word
Is a pointed sword.

See how the blood drips
From His finger-tips;
Why does He find it good
To wash in my blood?

14

Remembering Thy lip,
The ruby red I kiss;
Having not that to sip,
My lips press this.

Not to Thy far sky
Reaches my stretched hand,
Wherefore kneeling, I
Embrace the land.

15

I sought a soul in the sea
And found a coral there;
Beneath the foam for me
An ocean was all laid bare.

Into my heart’s night
Along a narrow way
I groped; and lo! the light,
An infinite land of day.

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‘Persian Poems‘, an Anthology of verse translations edited
by A.J.Arberry, Everyman’s Library, 1972

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Translation:

by Kartar Singh Duggal

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It’s all in One contained.
Understand the One and forge the rest.
Shake off your ways of an apostate pest
Leading to the grave to hell and to torture
Rid your mind of dreams of disaster
This is how is the argument maintained
It’s all in One contained.

What use is it bowing one’s head?
To what avail has prostrating led?
Reading Kalma you make them laugh
Absorbing not a word while the Quran you quaff
The truth must be here and there sustained
It’s all in One contained.

Some retire to the jungles in vain
Others restrict their meals to a grain
Misled they waste away unfed
And come back home half-alive, half-dead
Emaciated in the ascetic postures feigned
It’s all in One contained

Seek your master, say your prayers and
surrender to God.

It will lead you to mystic abandon
And help you to get attuned to the Lord
It’s the truth that Bulleh has gained
It’s all in One contained

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Another Translation:

by Suman Kashyap

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At this one point,all talk ends.

Hold tight to this point, forget your calculations,
Leave the miserable state of unbelief,
Do not torment yourself with the fear of death and hell,
For these are imaginary fears.
Only into such a house will the truth enter.
At this one point, all talk ends.

For no reason you abrade your forehead on the ground,
You display reverence at the mehraab,
You recite the Kalma to entertain a listener.
But knowledge does not enter your heart.
Can the truth ever remain hidden?
At this one point, all talk ends.

Many return from Mecca as hajjis,
Blue shawls across their shoulders.
They profit from the merit earned by haj.
Who can admire such behavior?
Can the truth ever remain hidden?
At this one point, all talk ends.

Some withdraw to the forest,
Eat a single grain a day.
Bereft of understanding, they exhaust the body,
And return home in bad shape,
Their life sucked dry with useless fasting and prayer.
At this one point, all talk ends

Hold fast to your murshid
Become a devotee of all creation,
Intoxicated, carefree,
Without desire, indifferent to the world.
Let your heart be fully clean.
Bulla asks, can the truth then be stopped?

At this one point,all talk ends

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Abida Parveen

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Translation:

I have learnt a secret
A secret I’ve learnt

He is the same
From this end to that.
It’s only we
Who fuss like a brat

I have learnt a secret
A secret I’ve learnt

To win over Sass
He comes as Punnun
I am wedded to Innayat
Who cares not for caste.

I have learnt a secret
A secret I’ve learnt

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Abida Parveen:

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