I HAVE SEEN YOU MANY A TIME

"I have seen her eyes gleam forth from the walls of Ajanta"

                                      -- Ali Sardar Jafri, (Samundar ki beti)

                                        

Amidst golden pillars that reached for the sky

The sunshine on Iram was pure molten gold

Like a wisp on the heat-haze, your form shimmered by

A shadow made of light, too ethereal to hold

The soul of Sahara and the pulse of the Nile

Are your fire that feeds on your beauty and pain

Every pyramid tribute that you strayed for a while

As you wandered in search of Osiris in vain

Then a glimpse of you naked and trembling I saw

When the sun from the west quenched the fire of the east

And then later I found others gathered in awe

And among them I noticed both ruler and priest

You lived in the minds of the masters of art

For I saw you from Europe to China, in stone

There are many who saw you enshrined in the heart

Yet others who swore that you ruled on a throne

There are those who have seen you arise from the sea

Or ride on a tiger, a sword in your hand

And yet I have known you to lie beside me

On a bed made of flowers that I piled on the sand

And my fingers have whispered of love to your skin

And your arms have responded, and clasped me so tight

And I have been witness to the fires within

That you strive to extinguish with all of your might

I have followed your trail through the valleys of time

All over the landscape of our universe

I have gazed on your beauty with the glances of rhyme

As you smouldered encircled by the flames of a verse

I have seen you in Egypt, in Persia, in Greece

I have seen you in Venice, by the light of the moon

I have seen you in torment, in passion, in ease

In the night and the morning and the pale afternoon

I have seen you breathe life into each work of art

The artist gave form to it, yours was the breath

That imbued into paper the passion of a heart

Yet now it appears that I'll see you as death