TO JAVID
(On Receiving His First Letter From London)

Create a place for thyself in the world of love;
Create a new age, new days, and new nights.

If God grant thee an eye for nature’s beauty,
Converse with the silence of flowers; respond to their love.

Do not be beholden to the West’s artisans,
Seek thy sustenance in what thy land affords.

My ghazal is the essence of my life-blood,
Create thy elixir of life out ‘of this essence.

My way of life is poverty, not the pursuit of wealth;
Barter not thy Selfhood; win a name in adversity.