Bābā Ṭāhir باباطاهر
11th century · Hamadan, Persia · Composed in his regional dialect rather than in literary Persian.
I cry out against both my eye and my heart, for whatever the eye sees, the heart remembers. I will forge a dagger with a point of steel and strike my eye, so that my heart goes free.
زدست دیده و دل هر دو فریاد
که هر چه دیده بیند دل کند یاد
بسازم خنجری نیشش ز فولاد
زنم بر دیده تا دل گردد آزادDo-baytī (a song of two couplets)
More from Bābā Ṭāhir · #longing
In the same thread
Xin Qiji 辛棄疾
late 12th century · Song China
Last night I fell down drunk beside the pine and asked the pine, "How drunk am I?" I thought the pine was moving to come and hold me up, so I pushed it with my hand and said, "Go away!"
昨夜松邊醉倒，問松我醉何如。
只疑松動要來扶，以手推松曰去。To the tune "West River Moon": letting my feelings out
Su Shi 蘇軾
1082 · Song China
Drinking at night on the East Slope, I sobered and got drunk again. When I came home it seemed about the third watch. The houseboy's snoring was already like thunder. I knocked at the gate and no one answered, so I leaned on my staff and listened to the river.
夜飲東坡醒復醉，歸來仿佛三更。
家童鼻息已雷鳴。敲門都不應，倚杖聽江聲。To the tune "Immortal by the River": returning to Lingao at night
Li Qingzhao 李清照
c. 1100 · Song China
I often remember that sunset at the pavilion by the stream, so drunk I did not know the way home. The fun spent, I turned the boat back late and strayed deep among the lotus flowers. How to get through, how to get through? I startled up a whole sandbank of gulls and egrets.
常記溪亭日暮，沈醉不知歸路。
興盡晚回舟，誤入藕花深處。
爭渡，爭渡，驚起一灘鷗鷺。To the tune "As in a Dream"
Sunthorn Phu สุนทรภู่
c. 1828 · Siam · Written as his boat passed a distillery, right after he repents of the shame drink had brought him.
I am no longer drunk on liquor, yet I am still drunk on love; try as I may, how am I to hold back my heart? Drunkenness from liquor is gone by mid-morning, but this drunkenness of the heart is with me every night.
ไม่เมาเหล้าแล้วแต่เรายังเมารัก สุดจะหักห้ามจิตคิดไฉน ถึงเมาเหล้าเช้าสายก็หายไป แต่เมาใจนี้ประจำทุกค่ำคืน
Nirat Phukhao Thong (Journey to the Golden Mount)
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us