Poetry of Rehman Baba

marwatone · #1 Sunday, January 02, 2011

On Knowledge

عالمان دي روښنايي ددې دنيا
عالمان دي د تمام جهان پېشوا

که څوک لار غواړي و خداى ته و رسول ته
عالمان دي ددې لارې رهنما

کيمياگر که د کيميا په طلب گرځي
همدمي د عالمانو ده کيميا

په مجلس د عالمانو به سرۀ زر شي
که څوک کاڼى وي که لُوټه د صحرا

جاهلان دي په مثال د مرده گانو
عالمان دي په مثال د مسيحا

چې مرده يې له نفسه ژوندي کېږي
عالمان دي واړه هسې اوليا

هر سړى چې رتبه نۀ لري د علم
سړى نۀ دى خالي نقش دى گويا

زه رحمان حلقه بگوش د هر عالم يم
که اعلٰى دى که اوسط دى که ادنىٰ

Translation

Lights in the world are those, who know,
Guides of mankind are those, who know

When looking for the road to God
And prophet, ask from those, who know

The alchemist in his research
Finds sympathy with those, who know

A desert stone will turn to gold
In company with those, who know

An ignorant is like a corpse,
Like Jesus Christ are those, who know

For by His breath the dead arose,
The saintly breath of those, who know

Those are not humans, only shells,
The empty ones, who do not know

No matter to which low degree,
REHMAN will serve the ones, who know

Translated by Jens Enevoldsen from, The Nightingale of Peshawar: Selected Poems of Rehman Baba

marwatone · #2 Sunday, January 02, 2011

Agony of love

ته چې ماته وايې چې په څه کوې ژړا
نه درمعلومېږي دغه خپل جور و جفا
ته جور و جفا کړې زه ژړا کوم دلبره
ستا که دغه نه وى دا به هم نه وى زما

څه ښادي به کاندي طايفه د عاشقانو
رسم د بتانو که همدا وي لکه ستا
دا خصلت چې ستا دى که هم تل په دغه شان وي
نه رامعلومېږي د دردمند د زړه دوا

يو دا ستا ماڼى شو بل غرور د رقيبانو
وار په وار مې وژني کله هغه کله دا
هر چې عاشقي کا که په قطع افلاطون وي
زه خو يې مجنون ګڼم که نن وي که سبا

سپى هم په عذاب د جدايۍ د وژلو نه دى
زه خو ګوندې ستا د کوڅې سپى شوم په وېنا
هيڅ يې پکار نه دي رحمان تا غواړي دلبره
دا زما رضا ده باقي هر چې ستا رضا

Translation

You ask, my love, about my tears
But don’t you recognize the fears
That agonize my heart?
Were not your infidelity
Torturing me so cruelly
My sorrows would depart

How can your lovers joyful be
If practicing idolatry
Is just like loving you?
If this your real nature is
What wounded heart can find release?
What medicine will do?

I sense, that you have turned aside
I suffer from my rivals’ pride
I’m killed in either way,
If one makes love to Plato’s tune
To me he’ll always be Manjun
Tomorrow as today

No dog is subject to such pain
I’m like a watchdog in your lane
And yet I suffer still,
A dog wants naught, RAHMAN wants you
This single goal I must pursue
Whatever be your will

Translated by Jens Enevoldsen from The Nightingale of Peshawar: Selected Poems of Rehman Baba

marwatone · #3 Sunday, January 02, 2011

My Lord

گوره هسې کردگار دى رب زما
چې صاحب د کل اختيار دى رب زما

همگي بزرگواران چې څوک يې وايي
تر همه ؤ بزرگوار دى رب زما

نه يې هيڅ حاجت په چا باندې موقوف دى
نه د هيچا منت بار دى رب زما

له نيستۍ يې د هستۍ صورت پېدا کړو
هسې رنگ پروردگار دى رب زما

هم صانع دى د جمله ؤ مصنوعاتو
هم سامع د هر گفتار دى رب زما

چې يې هيچرې نه مثل نه مثال شته
د هغو عطرو عطار دى رب زما

هر تعمير چې د دنيا او د عقبا دى
د همه واړو معمار دى رب زما

خواننده د نانويسو صحيفو دى
داننده د هر اسرار دى رب زما

که ظاهر دى که باطن دى که مابين دى
له همه ؤ خبردار دى رب زما

شريک نه لري په خپلې بادشاهۍ کې
بې شريکه شهريار دى رب زما

هسې نه چې واحدي يې ده له عجزه
په واحد وجود بسيار دى رب زما

حاجت نه لري د بل چا و يارۍ ته
له هغو سره چې يار دى رب زما

څه حاجت دى چې يې بل و خوا ته غواړم
په خپل کور کې همکنار دى رب زما

هيڅ تغير او تبديل نه لري رحمانه
تل تر تله برقرار دى رب زما

Translation

Look! My Lord is such a great doer of things,
That my Lord commands full authority.

Of great and virtuous people that one can name,
My Lord is beyond them all.

He is not dependent upon others for His needs;
My Lord owes nothing to anyone.

He created life from nothingness;
My Lord is this kind of creator.

He has fashioned all created things;
My Lord hears all speech.

Of which there is no similarity or likeness;
My Lord is the maker of such scents.

Of every structure in this world or the one to come;
My Lord is mason of them all.

He is the reader of unwritten scriptures;
My Lord is the knower of all secrets.

The overt, the covert and the part-known;
My Lord knows them all.

What is created, what is concealed, what is between;
My Lord is aware of them all.

He does not have any associate in His kingdom,
My Lord is a king without a partner.

His oneness is not due to weakness,
For my Lord is infinite in one body.

He needs friendship from no one,
Whose friend is my Lord.

I don’t need to look elsewhere,
For my Lord is with me in my home.

He is not transformed or changed O Rahmān!
My Lord is always constant.

Translated by Robert Sampson and Momin Khan.

marwatone · #4 Sunday, January 02, 2011

Muhammad. (P.B.U.H.)

Translation

If the body of Muhammad had not been born,
God would not have created the world.

The whole world was created for the sake of Muhammad;
Muhammad is father of the whole world.

Prophet-hood ended with Muhammad;
There are no prophets after Muhammad.

The light of Muhammad was in the world
Before there was even a notion of Adam and Eve.

Though created last in body;
In reality he is the first of all.

Do not consider him God. He is truly a man.
All good qualities are really his.

Whether prophet, saint or sinner;
Muhammad is the guide of them all.

Those who have accepted the religion of Muhammad
Are heaven-bound; both the sinner and the pious.

Muhammad is the guide of the lost,
The walking stick in the hand of the blind.

If there is any light, it is obedience to Muhammad.
Besides this, there is no other light in the world.

Muhammad is the helper of the helpless;
The remedy for every suffering person.

I Rahmān am a sweeper at Muhammad’s gate,
May God not separate me from His door.

Translated by Robert Sampson and Momin Khan.

imbindas · #5 Friday, June 15, 2012

Rahman Baba Kalam (with Translation)

Ma kooza warta lemah kra, zema sar ne teyteida,
shayid chi pe ulfat kei hum afghan patey kedam.
I lowered my gaze, but did not bow my head, perhaps even in love i was going to stay an Afghan (Pukhtun).

Talah da newar asman ta lara,
ma chi da sta husan da newar sara talelah!
The pan of the sun (in which it is being weighed) went up to the sky, when i weighed your beauty against it.

Wai aghyar chi da douzakh jaba da,
zeba janaat ta da pukhtu sara zem!
They call it the language of hell, but i shall enter paradise with my Pashto!

La pe afqa da pukhtunkhwa hum zaleydaley na yum,
ze agha newar yum da afaqa chi rakhataley na yum.
I have not yet shown on the horizon of Pukhtunkhwa, i am that universal sun which has not risen.

Chi shepei kala rah shewama shi, pe dei wakht zema pe zre kei shur paida shi
chi rana la dunya lara shi rukhsat shi, de shair da zre dunya ta rana shi.
In the dead of the night when the deep silence reigns, a loud noise rises up in my heart;
when light departs the world and darkness falls, light comes to the inner world of the poet.

Ma wei chi de odu koum ba pe zema chaghu weekh shi, malomah shewa ma ghag karei wu khubulu ta pe khub kei.
I though i would wake up this sleeping nation with my calls, i found that i have been calling a sleepy people in dream.

Bal yaad ba sta da yaad depasa kala rashi mata, da yow da aks da pasa na wi bal pa aeena kei.
Except for that thought of you, how can another come to my mind, when there can be no reflection in a mirror atop the one that is already there.

Chi jewand gran dei ka asan dei khabar na yum,
khu takal da asani ye la mushkil kai.
Whether life is difficult or notm i don’t really know, it is only further compounded by the urges of comforts.

Da chi waim da bal jahan bayan dei,
rakuz shewei da kitab da bal asman dei.
That i say is a story of another world, a book descended from another sky.

Hungama warkygi zema na dei jahan ta, nawei rang warkeygi dei zemakei asman ta
bal Adam zema da khawrei na paidakeygi, marghei warkeygi da ghulam da sauda ow zan ta.
Give excitement to the world from me, paint anew the earth and sky,
create another adam from my clay, kill this slave of profit and loss