The Maker Struck the Mirror on the Dust
Bidel Dehlaviبیدل دهلوی
آیینه بر خاک زد صنع یکتا
The one Maker struck the mirror against the dust
تا وانمودند کیفیت ما
so that what we are might be shown.
بنیاد اظهار بر رنگ چیدیم
We built the foundation of appearance upon colour,
خود را به هر رنگ کردیم رسوا
and disgraced ourselves in every colour.
در پرده پختیم سودای خامی
Behind the veil we cooked a raw desire,
چندان که خندید آیینه بر ما
so long that the mirror laughed at us.
از عالم فاش بی پرده گشتیم
In the world of the manifest we came out unveiled,
پنهان نبودن، کردیم پیدا
and all we revealed was that we were not hidden.
A note for readers
The opening couplets of the first ghazal in Bidel’s Divan. Bidel, who wrote in Mughal India, is the great master of the late Indian style, whose dense, abstract images resist translation: here the mirror is the world of appearances in which hidden reality shows itself. The excerpt gives the first four couplets.
More poemsشعرهای دیگر
یک عمر می‌توان سخن از زلف یار گفت
در بند آن مباش که مضمون نمانده است
One could speak for a lifetime of the beloved’s tresses;
do not fret that there are no themes left.
A Lifetime on the Beloved’s Tresses
بلبلی برگ گلی خوش رنگ در منقار داشت
و اندر آن برگ و نوا خوش ناله‌های زار داشت
A nightingale held in its beak a rose petal of lovely colour,
and with that petal and its song it made sweet, piteous laments.
A nightingale held a rose petal
ستاره ای بدرخشید و ماه مجلس شد
دل رمیده ما را رفیق و مونس شد
A star shone out and became the moon of the gathering,
became friend and companion to our startled heart.