O Himalah!
O rampart of the realm of India!
Bowing down, the sky kisses your
Your condition does not show any signs of old age You are young in the midst of day and night's alternation
The Kalâm of ñër Sân« witnessed but one
For the discerning eye you are an embodiment of
To the outward eye you are a mere mountain
In reality you are our sentinel, you are India's
You are the diwan2 whose opening verse is the
You lead Man to the solitudes of his heart's
Snow has endowed you with the turban of
Which scoffs at the crown of the world-illuminating
Antiquity is but a moment of your bygone
Dark clouds are encamped in your
Your peaks are matching with the pleiades in
Though you are standing on earth your abode is sky's
The stream in your flank is a fast flowing
For which the breeze is working like a
The mountain top's lightning has given a
In the hands of cloud for the ambling horseO Himalah!
Are you like a theater stage Which nature's hand has made for its elements?
Ah!
How the cloud is swaying in excessive
The cloud like an unchained elephant is
Gentle movement of the morning zephyr is acting like a
Every flower bud is swinging with intoxication of
The flower bud's silence with the petal's tongue is saying"I have never experienced the jerk of the florist's
Silence itself is relating the tale of
The corner of nature's solitude is the abode of mine"The brook is melodiously descending from the high
Putting the waves of Kawthar4 and Tasnâm 4 to
As if showing the mirror to Nature's
Now evading now rowing against the rock in its
Play in passing this orchestra of beautiful musicO wayfarer!
The heart comprehends your
When the night's Lailah unfurls her long
The sound of water-falls allures the
That silence of the night whose beauty surpasses
That state of silent meditation overshadowing the
That dusk's beauty which shivers along the mountain
Very beautiful looks this rouge on your cheeksO Himalah!
Do relate to us some stories of the
When your valleys became abode of Man's
Relate something of the life without
Which had not been stained by the rouge of sophisticationO Imagination!
Bring back that periodO Vicissitudes of Time speed backwards 6 ————————————————————————————————————————Explanatory Notes1.
The alternation of the day and night is what produces time.
This verse also alludes to the relative recentness of the Himalayas in terms of geological ages.
This range came into existence 5-10 million years ago in the Pliocene epoch.2.
Diw«n- A book containing the poetical work especially ghazals , of a poet.3.
The successful completion of education in the institutions of higher learning in the Muslim world culminates in a turban being conferred on the scholar as an insignia of his academic degree.
It corresponds with the cap and academic hood in the Western world.4.
Kawthar and Tasnâm- They are two fountains in Paradise.
The name includes their streams also.5.
This refers to the antiquity of the Himalayas in archaeological times.
Kashmir was an inhabited area at the time of the Indus Valley civilization in the third millennium B.
C. (Appendix
II,
No. 11).
It also alludes to the tradition that the Hindu sages wrote the Vedas in the Himalayas under the inspiration of its beauty.6.
This is an outpouring of the poet's heart in which he yearns for the revival of the Islamic civilization, of which the Asian civilization was a precursor and a part.
