Becoming a Young Man
After bathing, mother used to call again,
Come! Let me scrub you properly and bathe you.
Suddenly, from one day on, mother stopped calling.
And I understood,
I had turned from a boy into a young man.
I had grown very big.
A Futile War
One day you held someone else’s hand,
and I was defeated.
After that I took off my war attire.
I accepted it,
my love does not meet the conditions to win.
How long will I stand annoyed at your door in a futile war?
So I stepped aside, so that you could live again.
Comparison
A shirt scented with a smoker’s smell,
and a woman’s underwear scented with another man.
Lips blackened by a cigarette are certainly better,
if the comparison is with lips tasted by many men.
Blind Faith
The Creator has said,
this whole world is worth less than a mosquito’s wing.
From there I understood my own worth!
So I could no longer love myself much.
To prove myself worthless to everyone,
I chose blind faith in just anyone.
Debt
On various pretexts, a relationship gets lost.
But the promises remain piled up as debt!
So even if they face each other after many years,
their thirsty, wounded eyes keep turning back.
As if the heart still wants to say,
Hey, you never paid the debt of my love!
Illusion
There is nothing called living!
Life is only an illusion.
A cold corpse,
and some terrifying nightmare floating in its eyes.
Light
I know that after crossing much darkness, one day light will come.
But by then I will have become a resident of darkness.
That light will not be bearable to my eyes then.
Rather, it will pierce eyes and face like arrows!
Hiding Myself
I always used to think,
let my little pain or loss benefit someone.
Perhaps the Almighty accepted my wish.
So people inflict pain on me to fulfill their own interests.
And leave me with a river of sorrow,
where I am stacking my own corpses.
Hoping that one day, piled with corpses, an island will float,
where I will hide myself.
Return
You burned someone like this,
you shattered a heart so completely,
who even today cannot think without you.
Who cannot stand back up with a broken heart.
Yet how strange is the return!
Even today, they want to draw a kiss on your forehead.
Even today, under the guise of revenge, they want to hold you tight for a long time.
And their curse?
They only want to place their head on your chest and forget all the pain.
Distance Has Grown
A relationship that begins with lies,
over time the truth starts to reveal itself.
Some truths are so terrifying that
accepting them becomes impossible.
Then the relationship ends like this.
And we say, the distance has grown.
Known by Endurance
By now, enduring has become a habit.
Now, silently enduring that is how I recognize myself.
These days if someone tells someone else,
endure what’s happening, that’s how life is.
I feel as if someone is inviting others to join my team on my behalf!
Types of Lovers
You are a lover of trees, and I am your admirer.
The delight you feel with a newly planted sapling,
I feel exactly the same when I get a chance to see you.
The peace you find when flowers bloom on a tree you planted with your own hands,
I feel exactly that when your voice reaches my ears.
Some Memories
As a closed window suddenly opened, a gust of wind entered the room.
It brought with it your familiar fragrance,
and a familiar tune you once uttered rang in my ears.
Searching for the source, I see,
far away, that old platform under the tree.
Where once our stories spread their wings.
Who Is the Enemy
Knowing of downfall, even an arch-enemy steps back.
If it’s known you’ll wither and die, even the enemy’s gunfire retreats.
Knowing one dead, even an enemy shows humility.
And those who are dear,
they search for old wounds to inflict pain.
For Some Reason
This lovelessness of mine, this searching after losing myself.
This tired body of mine, this limping heart.
My tears, my sleepless nights.
I’ve told you everything; you know it all.
Yet for some reason it feels like I’ve told you nothing.
You don’t know how intensely I hurt.
For some reason it feels to me,
you neglect me because you don’t know my pain.
Again and again I feel,
if you knew of this suffering,
you would surely take care of me, surely love me.
For some reason, even today I want to tell you.
False Company
You see, many people around you.
Yet even among them, you feel alone.
And this is the truth!
Your eyes see only company.
But your heart does feel,
the interests and needs behind this companionship.
So you end up feeling alone.
To the Tree
O tree, do not try to match pace with the birds flying in the sky.
Birds have wings, they have reasons enough to fly.
And you have roots; in your roots lies your strength.
Hold on to your roots.
You’ll see, you will live longer than birds.
Inner Mystery
By looking at the exterior of a smiling man and a woman broken by tears, one can never determine their true condition.
Within both may hide an inner mystery!
Which lies beyond the power of observation.
Like the mystery that lies in a grave!
No one has the capacity to observe what lies merely three and a half cubits beneath the ground.
Likewise, the battles or deceptions behind someone’s exterior cannot be seen from outside.
Birth of a Man
By birth, a boy may be born,
but not a man.
A man is born of responsibility.
When he has the capacity to shoulder responsibility,
then his identity is that of a man.
Using Conscience for Self-Interest
Among marvelous creations, humans are supreme!
Yet within humans lie greed and desire.
Only humans have learned to devour others’ rights,
only humans have delighted in division to the harm of their own kind.
Only humans hoard fuel for self-interest,
and for self-interest use conscience and intellect.
Yet it is this very conscience
that grants them the badge of supremacy.