Hindi and Urdu poetry is a treasure trove of expressions of love. Unfortunately a lot of the sweetness and depth gets lost in translation.

Gulzar is an accomplished poet, author, lyricist and film director. What makes his writing exceptional is its subtlety and simplicity. While it is deeply human, it has a profoundly metaphysical dimension to it. Here is an attempted translation of one of his prose on the delicate and sublime nature of love, originally written in Urdu. These couplets have been dear to me since I was a young girl. They have meant different things at different times over the years.

“I have witnessed the fragrance emanating from those eyes.
Do not stain it by labelling it as a relationship.
It is just a realisation; experience it with your soul.
Let love be love, do not ascribe it a label.

Love is not words, love is not a sound (or voice).
It is a silence that listens and speaks by itself.
It does not die, it does not stop, it does not pause.
It is a drop of divinity that flows for eons.

It blooms like a smile somewhere in the eyes.
It adorns the eyelashes with a glow.
Lips do not say much but on quivering lips,
many silent stories remain suspended (waiting to be told).

It is just a realisation; experience it with your soul.
Let love be love, do not ascribe it a label.”

The word ‘realisation’ denotes oneness with the Universe.
A self-realised person is ‘in love’ with everything and everybody.
Unconditionally.

Putting a name to love restricts it.
Expectations to conform to the norms of that label set in.
They do not allow for the expansion of consciousness.
Let love remain boundless, pure and unstained.