Sultan Bahu: So what if love's idol is hidden?
Photo: Louis Armstrong and his wife at the Pyramids in 1961.
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So what if love's idol is hidden? One's heart will never be far away.
My guide lives many mountains away, but he is visible before me.
Whoever has one grain of love is drunk without wine.
They are true mystics, Bahu, whose graves are alive.
(Sultan Bahu)
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Source and Recommended Reading:
'Death before Dying: The Sufi Poems of Sultan Bahu Bilingual Ed Edition
By Sultan Bahu (Author), Jamal J. Elias (Editor, Translator)
Purchase Book:
Amazon.com
Amazon .co.uk
Description:
These 115 poems introduce readers in English to Sultan Bahu (d. 1691), a Sufi mystical poet who continues to be one of the most beloved writers in Punjabi. Bahu, whose name translates as "With God," remains highly popular in Pakistan and India today—even illiterate Punjabis can recite his poetry by heart.
"Jamal Elias has done a great service to those with an interest in poetry, in translation, and in the mystical by producing this volume. . . . A splendid guide to the poetry of Sultan Bahu, and to a Sufi poetry that continues to electrify."
(Parabola)
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