We could have met, if you had stayed.
Some bonds we could have now remade.
Some shattered dreams lie at my door.
But at your feet, my heart would’ve laid.
So many nights you stared at it.
That birthmark you could have surveyed.
This garden owes its life to you.
You too could, here, have blossomed red.
Translated from my Hindi poem, इतने दिनों बाद…
itne dinon bād…
āye the to ruk ke mil lete
kuch rishtein dobārā sil lete
sapne choukhaT pe toD gaye par
wapas tohFa-e-dil lete
jo dekh kayīn shab guzre the
Fir wo nazārā-e-til lete
ye bāG tumne hī sajāyā thā
rukte to tum bhī khil lete
Minakhi Misra 