The First Period Of Kashmiri Poetry

Lalla Arifa

Constant weeping will cause loss of thy eye-sight,

But will not lead thee to thy Beloved.

Keep thy mind pure, so that thou may’st have an easy access to Him.

Otherwise, thy weeping is like the howling of jackals in the ambush in the field.

Patience, my son ! is like a golden bowl;

Being costly, none doth dare purchase it.

Patience, my son, is a mixture of salt, pepper and Zira (spice);

It is bitter to taste, so who will taste it?

No crop can grow in a sandy desert.

It is useless to mix butter with bran cakes.

It is as fruitless to impart spirituality to a dullard

As it is waste of time to give candy to an ass

Shaikh Nur-ud-Din

Shield not thyself against His arrows,

Turn not thy face away from His sword,

Consider adversity as sweet as sugar,

Therein lies thy honour in this world and next

One can run way a pole from a serpent,

one can run way a league from the lion,

One can keep oneself off the creditor for a year,

But none can escape Fate for a twinkling of the eye

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