You, If I Found You
Even after being trapped beneath a ruined structure —
I am like the last surviving human.
I still keep thinking,
I will be rescued from here, you will come.
The joy that man would feel after returning alive from the wreckage,
I would feel just as delighted if I found you.
Beloved Bad Habit
My place is where you show neglect,
perhaps I live at the peak of your dislike.
Meanwhile, you are at the peak of my fondness,
loving you is my beloved bad habit.
A Painful Feeling
I say, after you left, I no longer have a mind.
Yet I still think of you,
I feel like telling you, hearing you.
But you, who have a mind capable of remembering,
still cannot remember me.
You gave that mind again to someone else,
and I watch silently like a mute spectator.
This feeling is painful,
as if a mountain has been pressed upon my chest.
A Life Without Explanation
The sun is setting, then rising again,
time is passing just as time should.
The more I try to put my life together,
the more chaotic it becomes.
What is happening to me, why it is happening,
when these raging waves will end!
I find no answer, no explanation.
The Cry of the Soul
You wanted to leave,
and I wanted to keep you.
Even then you didn’t stay,
instead you intensified the severity of the wound.
A wound whose pain reached all the way to the soul.
Today the soul seems to scream and say,
“Whom did you love to bring me this agony?
What sin did I commit to you, brother?
A curse upon you, Khubayb!”
Separate Selves
If I make a mistake,
you may tell me to correct it.
But you cannot force me to change.
Perhaps my behavior or nature is not to your liking,
and this is completely natural.
Every person has their own words, actions, mistakes, desires, dreams,
these differ from one another.
And these tiny differences are each person’s unique signature.
Now if I change myself instead of correcting myself,
will this ‘me’ inside me remain alive?
Will my singular essence survive?
Must Love
Perhaps the beginning was not centered on your beauty,
perhaps I was unaware of your personality,
I didn’t even know your flaws or your virtues.
But my heart had said,
you can be loved, you must be loved.
After that I have not seen anyone more beautiful than you,
nor known anyone with a personality like yours,
nor anyone fully virtuous the way you are.
Failed or Successful
I am already a failure, can a failure be lost?
Yet I am successful only in making myself fail.
One who is already successful in destroying himself,
why stand beside him and claim any credit?
The Neglected Flower Tree
From now on I no longer need care,
I no longer need anyone’s love.
Care, love they frighten me deeply,
because I am too accustomed to neglect, to disregard.
Whenever someone comes to care for me, I can only think,
that neglected flower tree which grows anywhere,
if someone takes it away with the intention of caring for it —
no matter how much care they give afterward, that tree does not survive.
Silence
When someone, even after using the fullest force of their speech —
still fails to make another person understand.
Then one realizes,
there is nothing left to explain here.
After that, they choose silence as the only answer.