Ghazal No. 22

O I long for a sight of that full moon. So I stand hand on heart, eyes fixed on a house-top.

‘My day’, said Beauty, ‘knows no evening.’ ‘I burn eternally’, said Love.

I am a prisoner of no yesterday, of no tomorrow, no today; I have no station, high or low.

I am the wine of mystery in search of one to drink me up. So in the Magi’s wine-house I rotate like a wine-cup.

Do not pass unconcernedly by my distracted song, for I am a celestial bird charged with a message from the Friend.

I draw the curtain and behind it speak. O I am a blood-shedding sword, but I keep myself sheathed.