Poem
Tabish Khair
Rumi and the Reed
Rumi and the Reed
Rumi and the Reed
Listen to the song of the reed flute:It sings of separation.
Torn from the leaf-layered, wind-voiced
Banks of the pond,
It is joined to sorrow and joy
By a slender sound.
Who, asked Rumi, can understand
The reed’s longing to return?
Let its raw lips rest then;
Let all words be brief then.
And I, O Believers, cried Rumi
(Having lost the man he loved),
I who am not of the East
Nor of the West, un-Christian,
Not Muslim or Jew, neither
Born of Adam nor Eve,
What can I love but the world itself,
What can I kiss but flesh?
Let my raw lips rest then;
Let all words be brief.
© 2000, Tabish Khair
From: Where Parallel Lines Meet
Publisher: Penguin-Viking, New Delhi
From: Where Parallel Lines Meet
Publisher: Penguin-Viking, New Delhi
Poems
Poems of Tabish Khair
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Rumi and the Reed
Listen to the song of the reed flute:It sings of separation.
Torn from the leaf-layered, wind-voiced
Banks of the pond,
It is joined to sorrow and joy
By a slender sound.
Who, asked Rumi, can understand
The reed’s longing to return?
Let its raw lips rest then;
Let all words be brief then.
And I, O Believers, cried Rumi
(Having lost the man he loved),
I who am not of the East
Nor of the West, un-Christian,
Not Muslim or Jew, neither
Born of Adam nor Eve,
What can I love but the world itself,
What can I kiss but flesh?
Let my raw lips rest then;
Let all words be brief.
From: Where Parallel Lines Meet
Rumi and the Reed
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