Category Archives: Literary sources

Literary sources

Scripting change in Indian Sindhi

Leave a comment

The orthographic impact of intergenerational
phonological change in Indian Sindhi

By Arvind Iyengar, University of New England, Australia

“Studies have shown that spoken Sindhi, both in Pakistan and India, has been undergoing phonological changes from generation to generation, from at least the mid-20th century (Bughio 2001; Iyengar 2017). These changes involve both vocalic as well as consonantal transformations, resulting in the emergence of two different chronolects (Frellesvig 1996), or varieties spoken by the older and younger generations. Bughio (2001) terms these chronolects ‘Old’ and ‘New’, respectively.

The Old chronolect is most evident in the speech of Sindhi speakers aged 60 years or older, while the New chronolect is characteristic of the speech of those aged 40 years or younger.

These phonological changes in spoken Sindhi can have grapholinguistic implications, namely, implications for Sindhi orthography. In India, where a debate has raged on whether to write Sindhi in the Perso-Arabic or Devanagari script (Asani 2003; Daswani 1979; Iyengar 2017), the aforementioned changes in phonology may impact orthography in both scripts, leading to potential pedagogical issues. Continue reading Scripting change in Indian Sindhi →

Corpus, Literary sources

Learning Sindhi language in India

1 Comment

Learning Sindhi

Sindhi is a language spoken as a mother tongue by 23.4 million people in Pakistan, where it is the official language of the province of Sindh, and 2.8 million people in India, where it enjoys official status since its inclusion in 1967 in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Sindhi’s official recognition has given the language institutional support: the Sindhi Adabi Board and the Institute of Sindhology in Pakistan and the Sahitya Akademi in India which promote the publication of literature and research in Sindhi. Continue reading Learning Sindhi language in India →

Corpus, Events, Literary sources

Eclipse of a giant: A tribute to Nabi Bakhsh Baloch (1917-2011)

Leave a comment

Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch (N. B. Baloch, sometimes written as N. A. Baloch) passed away on April 6, 2011. Born in 1917 in the small village of Jaffar Khan Laghari, in Sanghar District, he belonged to the Baluchi tribe of the Lagharis, but he nevertheless adopted the name of Baloch. It is thus a nod to history that one of the best specialists of Sindhi studies was named… Baloch. In fact, it is a marvelous example of the complex society of Sindh. His father was a poor illiterate peasant who passed away soon after his birth. He was thus grown up by his paternal uncle. Since I had the chance to meet him a number of times, I want to point out that when he was in his nineties, N. B. Baloch had still kept a fascinating memory and intelligence.

N. B. Baloch obtained his B. A. from Junagarh College, in Kathiawar (nowadays Gujarat State in India), affiliated to the University of Bombay, and a M. A. in Arabic from Aligarh University. In 1946, he went to Columbia University in New York where he got a Ph. D. focusing on education in Pakistan. After returning to his homeland, he was soon appointed as Professor in the new University of Sindh, located in Hyderabad (now Old campus). N. B. Baloch used to live in the Old campus until his death, even after the shifting of the University of Sindh to the other bank of the Indus River, in Jamshoro. N. B. Baloch was given the highest positions in the academia, such as vice-chancellor of the University of Sindh, and many others.

The scholarly work completed by N. B. Baloch is impressive. He implemented an encyclopedic approach to a huge topic: Sindh, through history, archaeology, ethnography, literature, folklore… He covered so many fields that one could hardly find a topic on which he did not publish. To some extent, Nabi Bakhsh Baloch is reminiscent of another giant in Sindhi studies, Mirza Kalich Beg (1853-1929). As a staunch Sunni Baloch, N. B. Baloch was nevertheless less interested by Shia devotional literature, as well as Hindu one. Furthermore, he came to be fascinated by classification, and one can think that he felt that this world was disappearing after partition, hence the need to ‘catalogue’ it.

For the student in Sindhi Studies, however, his most salient publication is his five-volume Dictionary of Sindhi Language, also published in an abridged version in one-volume, and afterwards the 42 volumes devoted to Sindhi popular literature. I would like to highlight the latter in relation with the wide corpus of devotional literature. In 1956, the Sindhi Adabi Board created a Folklore and Literature Project with N. B. Baloch as director. The entire Sindh was covered by a network of fieldworkers stationed in each taluka, their duty being to collect oral and written materials. A volume devoted to folk songs (lok gît) is a good sample of his concern over classification. He was able to identify 57 types of folk songs in the lower Indus valley, or Sindh (lok gît, Sindhî Adabî Bord, Hyderabad, 1965). He first classified lok gîts into two main categories: the gîts which became out of fashion, and the still popular gîts.

A subcategory of devotional songs includes maddah, mawlûd, munâjât, and also marsiyah, although he did not, according to my knowledge, published any of these dirges devoted to the martyrdom of Husain and his family in Kerbela (680)1. Among the ‘still popular’ gîts, the 56th is of interest, bearing the name of pîrâno, meaning gîts devoted to the pîr, that is a Sufi master (idem, p. 395-6). Baloch only quotes a single gît devoted to Pithoro Pîr, the pîr of the Meghwars, an untouchable Hindu caste (qawm) of the Thar Parkar. While Baloch coined the pilgrimage place (ziyârat) as âstana,2 it is mentioned in the gît as mârî. The âstana is a word of Arabic origin used in Sindh for the residence of a faqîr, while the mârî designates in Sindhi the upper room of a house, but also a temple, or any place considered as sacred. The song ends with the following verse:

Murîd âhan mohara jâ, âhe âsân jo pîr…

We are the murids of the (his) seal, he is our pîr…

Although Baloch was interested in the entire corpus of devotional Hindu gîts, at a time when they were devoted to a Muslim pîr, the volume on maddah (eulogy) and munâjât (confidential devotion) is one of the most precious piece of the collection (Maddahûn ain munâjâtûn, Sindhî Adabî Bord, Jamshoro, 2006, first printed 1966). The 102 devotional poems contained in this collection are almost equally divided between maddah and munâjât. The first lesson we can learn from this corpus is that despite the widespread practice of worshiping saints, the Prophet Muhammad is very much praised, as nabî. Among the Sufis, one badshâh pîr is venerated more than others. He is `Abd al-Qâdir Jilânî, the alleged founder of the Qâdiriyya tarîqa (idem, p. 109). Another one is Ghaws Bahâ’ w’l-Haqq, better known as Bahâ’ al-Dîn Zakariyyâ, the Sohrawardî pîr from Multan (ibidem, p. 507). One can easily understand that only a few maddah-s and munâjât-s are devoted to local Sindhi pîrs. There is hardly one maddah on Shâh `Abd al-Latîf (ibidem, p. 95), and another one on Pîr Pagaro (ibidem, p. 313).

An interesting maddah is devoted to the châr yâr, the “four friends”, a very common topic in the devotional poetry of the Indus valley. In many legends, the châr yâr are Bahâ’ al-Dîn Zakkariyya, Farîd al-Dîn Ganj-e Shakar, Lal Shahbâz Qalandar and Makhdûm Jahâniyyân Surkh Bukharî. Fath Faqîr (d. 1843) wrote a number of maddahs on the châr yâr. One of his maddah-s, which is a very interesting piece of poetry, begins with a number of praises to God, containing the many Quranic names which are given to him. Every verse includes a hemistich and only at the bottom of the maddah, the poet gives us the name of the châr yâr. Interestingly, these four friends are not Sufis, but the first four caliphs of Islam, the khalîfa rashîdûn, the well guided caliphs. First comes Abû Bakr, often referred here as sacho sadîq, the ‘real truthful’; the second is `Umar, third is `Usmân Shâh and the fourth is `Alî Hyder. Another specialist of the châr yâr, Faqîr Lagharî (1809-1878), is very explicit about the role played by them: châr’î yâr nabî’a nûr, the four friends (bear) the light of the prophet Muhammad (ibidem, p. 157).

One of the consequences of Baloch’s work is obviously to highlight the interrelations between devotional literature and Sufism in the Sindhi area3. Such a contribution opens up a wide field of research, while raising also a number of new questions. Where does Sufism begin and end? More precisely, should we restrict the label ‘Sufism’ to the sphere of high culture, as incarnated for instance by the poetry of Jalâl al-Dîn Rûmî or Amîr Khusraw? Answering such queries would imply to develop new research projects. On the other hand, it is obvious that the “real” Sindhis interviewed by Baloch and his fieldworkers are not aware of such debates. This finally leads us to question our own categories of thought, which are partly a legacy of orientalism. These thoughts simply provide a glimpse of the contribution N. B. Baloch achieved in the field of Sindhi studies. Needless to say, the immense work completed by this scholar will, for decades, continue to feed and stimulate research on Sufism, and on many other topics related to Sindh.

By Michel Boivin

  1. On the latter, see Annemarie Schimmel, 1979, “The Marsiyeh in Sindhi Poetry”, in Peter J. Chelkowski (ed.), Ta`zieh, ritual and drama in Iran, New York, New York University, pp. 210-221. There are only a few academic works on the devotional literature in Sindhi. Such a topic is usually excluded from ‘official’ publications on Sindhi literature: see A. Schimmel, 1974, Sindhi Literature, Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz. See also Ali Asani, 2003, “At the Crossroads of Indic and Iranian Civilizations. Sindhi Literary Culture”, in Sheldom Pollock (Ed.), Literary Culture in History. Reconstruction from South Asia, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, pp. 621-646; 1994, “The Bridegroom Prophet in Medieval Sindhi Poetry”, in Alan W. Entwistle and Françoise Mallison (Ed.), South Asian Devotional Literature, New Delhi, Manohar, pp. 213-225. [↩]
  2. I quote the words, and also the names, according to dialectal transliteration as mentioned in Baloch’s publications. [↩]
  3. It is noteworthy to mention the three volumes devoted to qâfiyyûn, which are beyond the scope of this modest tribute. See Qâfiyyûn, 3 volumes, Sindhî Adâbî Bord, Jamshoro/Hyderabad, 1980-1990. See also my forthcoming article entitled “Devotional literature and Sufism in Sindh in the light of Dr N. B. Baloch’s contribution “, The Journal of the  Pakistan Historical Society, published by Hamdard University.

    [↩]

Corpus, Literary sources

Sindhi poetry from Miyun Shah Inat, translated by Ghulam Ali Allana

Leave a comment

The works of Miyun Shah Inat (c. 1623-1712), not to be confused with Shah Inayat of Jhok, can be seen as a bridge between the pioneers of Sufi poetry in Sindhi, like Qadi Qazan or Shah Abd al-Karim, and the classical poetry of Shah Abd al-Latif. He used folktale heroines to symbolize the quest of the soul for God. He also addressed the issue of jogis as models of renunciation. His kalam was published by N. B. Baloch in 1963 but his verses were first translated into English by Ghulam Ali Allana (d. 1984).

 

Behold the flushes of fire,

Aroused by the Yogis and their ire,

They, in the darkness of the night,

Betook themselves to flight.

How can I of their love speak publicly,

Which to me they entrusted secretly?

Throughout the night I weep,

And in my heart their remembrance keep.

Insatiable is their greed,

Which in their hearts they feed.

They beg from country to country,

These Yogis with blankets heavy.

Where others feel uneasy,

There the Yogis rest easy.

Ram, the Lord, they entreat,

As begs the lotus sweet.

“I trust in God,” say and repeat,

These words repeat, these words sweet.

Listen the Sayed say “O Sanyasi,

Learn to master that mystery.

O yogis, from your heart efface

Scepticism that within yourself you face,

Learn to practice what you preach,

Then from love learn to beseech.”

Inat says the rains have arrived,

And the river’s tributaries are flooded.

The grass has sprouted in abundance,

Of every kind, hue and refulgence.

O Lord, end my days of imprisonment,

You are the Mighty, the Omnipotent.

O Lord, let those days arrive,

I see my family members and thrive.

 

Source: G. Allana, 1983, Four classical poets of Sindh, Jamshoro, Insittue of Sindhology, University of Sindh, pp. 12-15.

Corpus, Literary sources

The Diwân-e Qalandar, introduced and translated by Mojan Membrado

Leave a comment

Very little is known about the origin of the Diwân-e qalandar attributed to Sufi Saint La’l Shahbâz Qalandar who died in 1274 in Sehwan Sharif, in Sindh. The edition we used was compiled by Illahi Bakhsh and published at Sukkur in 1998. Unfortunately, the editor does not say a word on how this poetry came to him. He mentions that he was helped by scholars and mystics in translating Persian poetry into Sindhi language. He was mainly supported by the “gâdî nashîn of Sehwan of Sehwan Sharif”, Sayed Sadiq Ali Shah Sabzwari1.

The book appears to be a collection of poems stemming from popular oral tradition. It informs us on some features of the faith that prevailed in the context where it was collected. We chose to study an excerpt in order to identify some of these features.

The first poem of Diwân-e Qalandar is comprised of 26 pages (pp. 2-28) in the tarji’band style. Tarji’band is a poetic style in which all the sections of a poem are related to each other by the same couplet which appears systematically at the end of each section. This couplet – called tarji’ (in Arabic) or bargardân (in Persian) – is:

“Heydariyam, qalandaram, mastam / bandeh-ye Mortezâ ‘Ali hastam”: “I am a Heydari, I am a Qalandar, I am intoxicated/ I am submissive to Mortezâ ‘Ali” (passim).

Heydari means “relating to Heydar”, “a follower of Heydar”. Heydar (“lion” in Arabic) is one of the nicknames of Ali. Mortezâ (“adequate”, “desirable”) in the second distich is another of his nicknames. Broadly speaking, Heydari refers to those who venerate Ali; but in its specific sense it is a reference to the Heydari order of dervishes2. This couplet is recited in sama’ gatherings (prayer assemblies accompanied with music, song and dance).

From a literary point of view the poem presents a myriad of spelling errors and inconsistencies in the poetry rhythm. As to its structure, it contains 40 sections. Each section is composed of four distiches and ends with the tarji’ couplet as mentioned before. In the first section the author says that since he has felt Ali’s love he has become a Qalandar and a Heydari (kamar andar qalandari bastam / az del-e pâk Heydari hastam). In the second section Ali is recognized as a vali (a friend of God and His representative)3 and in the third section as a theophany, mazhar allâh – the manifestation of God in the human body.

“Asad allâh ham yad allâh ast / Vali allâh, mazhar allah ast / Hojjat allâh qodrat allâh ast / Bi nazir ou zât-e allâh ast”: “He is the God’s lion, God’s hand / God’s friend and representative, God’s manifestation / He is the proof of God and God’s power / There is nothing similar to him, he is God’s essence” (p. 2).

Considering Ali as the essence of God is an affirmation which transforms this poem to a highly antinomian text; as, for all Muslims God’s, essence is unique and imperceptible, nothing could be compared to it.

However, as shown in sections 4 and 5, those who scan this poem are indeed Muslims: in section 4 there are multiple references to the verses of the Koran and in section 5 a reference to the prophet of Islam who according to the author, approves of what is said in this poem about the status of Ali.

Section 6 refers to Noseyr (or Nosayr), a figure well-known to all “extremist” Shi’i orders. As we know, Noseyri is the name of a Shi’i order which is established in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, also known as Alawis. But the reference made to Noseyr and his followers (Noseyri) is not necessarily understood in relation to this order. According to a myth widespread in certain Shi’i communities, Noseyr was a slave of Ali and recognized the latter as God. As, according to Islamic belief, regarding a human being as God is heresy, Ali killed him. Then he remembered the promise he had made to Noseyr’s old mother who had asked him to protect his son and bring him back to her alive, so Ali restored Noseyr back to life. Once Noseyr was raised from his death, he told Ali: “if I had any doubt about your divinity, now that you brought me back to life I am more than sure that you are God”. Ali killed him again and this scenario repeated seven times. Then God ordered Ali to let Noseyr be: “I am the creator of the universe and I am God for all the creation, but I give permission to Noseyr and his followers to recognize you as God”4. In this poem we read “man Ali dânam, Ali gooyam / chon Noseyri keh bandeh-ye ouyam”: “I know Ali, I call Ali / like a Noseyri I am Ali’s slave” (p.6). Moreover in section 34 the name Noseyri is given to the faith described in the poem. “Chon Noseyri keh nâm dâram man / Ali vali allâh âshkâram man”: “As my name is Noseyri / the fact that Ali is a vali of God is obvious to me (or: As a Noseyri that I am / I claim obviously that Ali is the vali of God)” (p. 24).

Sections 7 and 8 are dedicated to Ali. In section 9 we read “Sarvar-e harkeh Mortezâ bâshad / Peyrov-e din-e Mostafâ bâshad”: “whoever takes Ali for his lord / Is a follower of the religion of the Prophet” (p. 6); and in the section 12 it is said that whoever is not a follower of Heydar (Heydari) is a non-believer, “Gheyr-e Heydari ham agar dâni / kâfari o yahûdi o nasrâni”: “If you believe in anything else but Heydar / You are a non-believer, a Jew, a Christian” (p. 8). We see here that in the author’s view any belief other than in Ali is considered useless.

Pages 10 to 20 (sections 13-28) are a praise to the ‘Fourteen Immaculate’ -Mohammad, Ali, Fâtemeh and their descendants the Shi’i imams. This part testifies the Duodeciman Shi’i feature of the author’s faith. In section 21, relating to Imam Kâzem, the seventh imam for duociman Shi’ies, there is a sudden aggressiveness. The author insults the enemies of this imam. It might be intended for the Shi’ites who do not recognize Kâzem as the seventh imam, e.g. the ismailians. “Doshman-e oust kâfar-e motlaq / beshno khâreji sag o ahmaq”: “His [Kâzem’s] enemy is an absolute non-believer / Listen you outsider!, you dog, you imbecile” (p. 14).

Some military features and a warrior spirit are observed in sections 30, 31 (pp. 20-21). “[…] Tabar-e Heydarist dar datam / Qâtel-e ân jami’ man hastam […]”: “I am bearing a Heydari axe / I am the killer of them all [all the enemies]”. The aggressiveness toward enemies mentioned in section 21 recurs in section 33, where the outsiders are addressed as dogs, idiots and imbeciles. Section 35 (p. 24) curses ibn Moljam (The assassin of Ali), ibn Ziyâd (the Governor of Kufa and one of the leaders of the army of Yazid during the battle of Karbala where Hosayn the third imam was martyred), ibn Khattâb (‘Omar, the second Caliph), Shemr (The assassin of Hoseyn).

Some parts of the poem are expressed enigmatically, using numbers instead of names. For example, in section 36 we read: “Yek sad o si o yek monâfeq dân / Si sad o dah ou movâfeq dân / shesh sad o shast o yek motâbeq dân / Yek sad o bist o haft fâseq dân”: “Consider the 131 as a hypocrite / Recognize 310 as an allies / 631 is adopted / 127 should be considered sinful” (p. 24). These numbers might be the names converted by the abjad5 system.

The identity of the author is acknowledged in the sections 38 and 40. “[…] manam Shahbâz bandeh-ye dargâhash […]”: “I am Shahbâz the slave of his threshold” (section 38, p. 26); “[…] manam ‘Othmân Marvandi bandeh-ye dargâhash […]”: “I am Othmân Marvandi², the slave of his threshold” (section 40, p. 28). However, comparing the literary quality of this text to some other poems attributed to Othman Marvandi6, one can conclude whether this text is his or not, and whether it has been distorted by oral transmission.

The study of this kind of dervish popular literature is nevertheless interesting because it informs us about a form of dervish piety and perhaps also be the manner in which Marvandi’s ideas were understood among popular layers of society.

  1. Dîwân-e qalandar, ed. by Illahi Bakhsh, Sukkur, p. VI. [↩]
  2. This is more than a supposition, as we will see further (section 30, p. 20), the author affirms bearing a “Heydari axe” (tabar-e Heydari). Axe is an element of dervishes panoply. On Heydari order, see among others Mehmed Fuad Köprülü, Abdülbaki  Gölpinarli and Ahmet Yashar Ocak. [↩]
  3. For more details on the meaning and the impact of this codified status in shi’ism see Amir-Moezzi, “Notes à propos de la Walâya Imamite (Aspects de l’Imâmologie Duodécimaine, X).” Journal of American Oriental Society, 2002, 122(4), 722-741. [↩]
  4. For the full version of this story see Hâjj Ne’matollâh Jeyhûnâbâdi, Shâhnâmeh-ye Haqiqat, Tehran, 1984. [↩]
  5. The Abjad numerals are a decimal numeral system in which the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are assigned numerical values. The Abjad numbers are used to assign numerical values to Arabic words for purposes of numerology. For example the word “Allâh” ا has a numeric value of 66 (1+30+30+5). [↩]
  6. Sheykh Othmân Marvandi (d. 1274) known as “La’l Shahbâz Qalandar” is a Muslim mystic of the Indian subcontinent. His other nicknames are “Seyf al-lesân”, “Shams al-din”, “Makhdoom”, “Mahdi” and more but he generally used “Othmân” or “Shahbâz” as his pen name. According to some sources he was a Qâderi dervish. Other sources designate him as the founder of the Qalandari Shahbâzi order (See for example: ‘Affân Saljouq, Bâ la’l Shahbâz beraqsim, Heydarâbâd: Khâneh-ye Farhang-e Iran). [↩]
Corpus, Literary sources

The melody of the wandering ascetics, introduced by Michel Boivin

Leave a comment

 

We wish to introduce new Sindhi poetry through excerpts of the risâlo of Shâh `Abd al-Karîm (1536-1624). He was the grand-father of Shâh `Abd al-Lâtif (1689-1752), the famous author of Shâh jo risâlo. Shâh `Abd al-Karîm lived in the village of Bulri, not far from Thatta. The risâlo is made of 92 baits which are one of the oldest samples of Sufi poetry in Sindhi. It was published and translated into English by Motilal Jotwani in 1979, in a booklet entitled Shah Abdul Karim – a mystic of Sind (New Delhi, Rajesh Publications) and reprinted by Sindhi Kitab Ghar and Indus Publications in 1986. The baits deal here with the Sufi concept of wahdat-e wujûd:

 

The Beloved has a way
unheard of and unknown,
Utter bewilderment
is the lover’s fate.

He Himself is the king,
And Himself the envoy sent,
He Himself receives the envoy
and accredits Himself.

Those for whom we yearn
are none but we ourselves;

Now, O Doubt! be gone,
We recognise the Beloved.
You were created
out of nothing;
What does your saying “I” mean,
When you are nothing still?

You live in “Nought but God”;
be not away one moment from Him;
Man is God’s manifestation,
why break this whole in parts?

He guides us to the Fount of Light,
to Himself,
So to our source we all return,
Hold fast to this root of the matter.

 

Shâh `Abd al-Lâtif Bithai was born in Hala. During his lifetime, he saw the decline of the Mughal empire, and the invasions of Nâdir Shâh and Ahmad Shâh Durrânî. According to tradition, he always kept three books with him: the Quran, the risâlo of Shâh Karîm, and the Mathnawî of Rûmî. It is said he visited many sanctuaries, including Hindu ones in the company of wandering ascetics (jogis) probably from Nathpanthi persuasion. Following Shâh Karîm’s steps, but writing in a more common language though hardly understandable for Sindhis today, Shâh Lâtif uses the folktales of Sindh for depicting the quest of the human soul toward God.

 

The ascetics, handsome and enlightning, the
world over roam;
None of them has any place his home.
Those of them that kindle Love’s fire,
Without their company, I can not live.

The horns the ascetics blow produce ecstatic
sound;
They are more precious then treasures in

A representation of Shah `Abd al-Lâtif Bithai

palaces found.
Pure gold are their horns, their possessions all;
Do not them devoid of wealth call.
You must feel yourself as reassured,

Perchance, this company may have this place
renounced;
« Let us go », they may have pronounced.
Without their company, I can not live.

The ascetics their « Ego » gather,
And set it to fire altogether.
The ascetics their « Ego » squeeze,
And devour it as they please.
Those that across the ocean to safety lead,
Without their company, I can not live.

As their dwellings I am beholding,
There arises within my heart a longing.
Not yet over is this morning,
So, the ascetics are not yet their music playing.
Those, who follow the Path of submission to
God,
Without their company, I can not live.

 

Source: G. Allana, Selections from the Risalo, Education Department, Government of Sind, Karachi, no date.

 

 

The ascetics, handsome and enlightning, the

world over roam;

None of them has any place his home.

Those of them that kindle Love’s fire,

Without their company, I can not live.

The horns the ascetics blow produce ecstatic

sound;

They are more precious then treasures in

palaces found.

Pure gold are their horns, their possessions all;

Do not them devoid of wealth call.

You must feel yourself as reassured,

Perchance, this company may have this place

renounced;

« Let us go », they may have pronounced.

Without their company, I can not live.

The ascetics their « Ego » gather,

And set it to fire altogether.

The ascetics their « Ego » squeeze,

And devour it as they please.

Those that across the ocean to safety lead,

Without their company, I can not live.

As their dwellings I am beholding,

There arises within my heart a longing.

Not yet over is this morning,

So, the ascetics are not yet their music playing.

Those, who follow the Path of submission to

God,

Without their company, I can not live.