The Burial of the Uninspired

1. I never wanted to belong to anyone, yet here I am, belonging to everyone.

2. Everyone stops me, otherwise—those fields, rivers, mountains, the sky itself—nothing would exist but what I have written.

3. The girl who drowned sleep-laden eyes in kohl—why should she rush to become another man's wife? She is made only to be a lover.

4. Where will you record these few fasts of mine separately, O God? All those days I went without—can you even finish tallying them?

5. When I am gone, bury the letters I have written along with me. I will not send them—there is not a single soul in this world for them.

6. I have a desperate hunger to succeed. Only then can I take my leave.

7. You are happy, I know. But why don't you know that I am not?

8. I cannot tell if I am alive or dead. Tell me—can a dead person weep?

9. When I die, you will not wait for me; you will take another's hand and go. For that fear, I have stopped wishing for death.

10. The one whose name is written in alpona across the courtyard—there is no one to call her tenderly by her pet name.