Mahmud Gami



(1765-1855)

Mahmud Gami was one of the great poets of the early 19th century and arguably the greatest narrative poet of  Kashmir. Gami introduced in Kashmiri the Persian forms of the masnavi and ghazal. While his greatest contribution lies in his adaptation of famous tales of  Islamic and Persian traditions like Shirin-Farhad and Yusuf-Zulekha into Kashmiri, he also penned lyrics of great excellence:

The Land of Poems*

For just one glimpse of you,
The rosebud of your street
Has bloomed anew !
No songbird there to greet
Your rose, which blooms alone,
But in that land
Of poems, where have grown
My roses, and I stand
Within the shrine
Of secret meanings, hail !
How every verse of mine
The nightingale
Will sing, and none destroy
The ecstasy we share,
His house of joy
On heights none others dare.


* Persian Diwan of Mahmud Gami 
(Translation by Nilla Cram Cook)
[For A., always]
 

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These pages were conceptualised and implemented by Dr. Bakshi Jehangir ©2002 and beyond.