The Language of Worship

1. People sing of my ghazals,
and I blame your kohl-lined eyes!

2. I've kept a record of every day you ignored me,
that beautiful face—who are you showing it to? I've already seen your true, ugly self!

3. Will you leave a poem in your handwriting beside my corpse?
When you see the worm-eaten paper on the far shore, you'll know it's me by heart!

4. Everyone will watch you from a distance; no one will ever come close enough to your heart,
never knowing that no one else could love you as honestly as this fool has,
could never love you the way I do!

5. Loving you, I forgot to love myself,
and only after learning to love myself did I understand how wrong I'd been all along!

6. These days your prayer and mine speak the same language,
yet you insist we are two different kinds of people!

7. Love has changed me, swollen my chest with longing,
how could you understand? Your every pore breathes nothing but contempt!

8. By staying silent so long, I've learned the art of silence itself,
I can't cry in front of others anymore—tell me, haven't I grown too much?

9. Thinking I'd melt your pride, I built mountains of it piece by piece,
chasing after you, I forgot who I was before—who was I then?

10. Run away, time is short in your hands, I've seen clouds tinged with vermillion,
but why do you linger even after leaving? Did I chain you down?

11. You thought I was the kind who'd slip away without a word,
but from this distance, you'll finally understand the truth: what am I to you?

12. Eyes wide open, yet you are utterly blind,
what kind of guardian are you whose inner eye remains shut?

13. I've forgotten everything I learned day after day; this alone I've kept:
in your world, hidden behind poetry, the words matter more than the writer!

14. My endless leisure and your restless mind at work—
why does your time need a woman?
This makes no sense at all!

15. If life must be spent in that busyness and those jobs,
why dream of clay cottages and firewood?

16. Two plus two makes four! But three plus one also makes four!
Even if I lose, think hard—the game was never yours to win!

17. Hungry for devotion, you demand worship,
and then you walk away, leaving the blessing behind?

18. Ask for nothing, and you get the Himalayas—
ask for something, and all you get is a dream!