Monday, April 12, 2010
"Ghazal" by Zeb-un-Nisa
Ghazal
You with the dark burly hair and the breathtaking eyes,
your inquiring glance that leaves me undone.
Eyes that pierce and then withdraw like a blood-stained sword,
eyes with dagger lashes!
Zealots, you are mistaken - this is heaven.
Never mind those making promises of the afterlife:
join us now, righteous friends, in this intoxication.
Never mind the path to the Kaabah: sanctity resides in the heart.
Squander your life, suffer! God is right here.
Oh excruciating face! Continual light!
This is where I am thrilled, here, right here.
There is no book anywhere on the matter.
Only as soon as I see you do I understand.
If you wish to offer your beauty to God, give Zeb-un-Nisa
a taste. Awaiting the tiniest morsel, she is right here.
Zeb-un-Nisa (1639-1706)
---------
I'm not sure where I ran across this poem--it's by a Sufi poet whose name is a title that means simply "the most beautiful of women." Her Wikipedia page is sketchy at best and almost makes me think she's apocryphal, but that doesn't change my feelings for the poem, which is earthy and ecstatic, nearly pained with desire. There's something frankly appraising and rather possessive about it that saves it from sentimental swooniness for me. Who needs an afterlife when I have your face right now?
You with the dark burly hair and the breathtaking eyes,
your inquiring glance that leaves me undone.
Eyes that pierce and then withdraw like a blood-stained sword,
eyes with dagger lashes!
Zealots, you are mistaken - this is heaven.
Never mind those making promises of the afterlife:
join us now, righteous friends, in this intoxication.
Never mind the path to the Kaabah: sanctity resides in the heart.
Squander your life, suffer! God is right here.
Oh excruciating face! Continual light!
This is where I am thrilled, here, right here.
There is no book anywhere on the matter.
Only as soon as I see you do I understand.
If you wish to offer your beauty to God, give Zeb-un-Nisa
a taste. Awaiting the tiniest morsel, she is right here.
Zeb-un-Nisa (1639-1706)
---------
I'm not sure where I ran across this poem--it's by a Sufi poet whose name is a title that means simply "the most beautiful of women." Her Wikipedia page is sketchy at best and almost makes me think she's apocryphal, but that doesn't change my feelings for the poem, which is earthy and ecstatic, nearly pained with desire. There's something frankly appraising and rather possessive about it that saves it from sentimental swooniness for me. Who needs an afterlife when I have your face right now?
// posted by Jennifer @ 11:26 PM 
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Oh! What a find you've prepared for us!
Thank gGod there are poets to give word to our inner moanings. This one's going into my memory banks so I can unravel it and taste at my will.
And yes - I think the frankness of it saves it from being, as you put it, "swoony", (though it was painful to read, in the best of ways).
Thank gGod there are poets to give word to our inner moanings. This one's going into my memory banks so I can unravel it and taste at my will.
And yes - I think the frankness of it saves it from being, as you put it, "swoony", (though it was painful to read, in the best of ways).
(I like the "gGod" spelling, by the way!)
This poem reminds me a bit of the Song of Solomon and all the other wonderful poetry that braids together sex and religion in fascinating ways--because this does seem a very religious poem in some ways, just a very here-and-now oriented religion...
This poem reminds me a bit of the Song of Solomon and all the other wonderful poetry that braids together sex and religion in fascinating ways--because this does seem a very religious poem in some ways, just a very here-and-now oriented religion...
YES!! I love this blend! I mean, who/what is sexier than gGod? I was talking to someone about this the other day, and I asked them "do you think gGod finds US sexy?" They thought the question a bit blasphemous, but you've got to wonder....if there is a gGod, how does he/she/it feel about humans?
Song of Solomon is a beauty of a book, and I love those strange, distant similes: teeth like sheep, etc.
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Song of Solomon is a beauty of a book, and I love those strange, distant similes: teeth like sheep, etc.
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