Khurshid-Banu Natavan
Time has plunged me into an ocean of pain and woe...

Time has plunged me into an ocean of pain and woe,
Parted me with my sun-faced; all is dark wherever I go.

My patience has reached its limit, O God almighty on high!
Either allow me to join him, or have mercy and let me die.

In vain I implored and begged you, you left and never returned.
Now come and look at me, sun-faced, see into what I have turned.

How long must I pine in longing-my life is all misery.
Have pity, at least for a moment; beloved, remember me.

What terrible tortures I suffer! Our parting I cannot bear.
Am I worthy of nothing better than eternal grief and despair?

Our parting has stolen my reason, my soul has forgotten repose.
Behold how merciless fortune has doomed me to endless woes.

I wonder why my cruel lover will not have pity on me.
I burn in the flame of parting-the one who lit it was he!

How beautiful were those days when I was together with you.
Now I am broken-hearted, sadly my fate I rue.

For a while I was reunited with my lover, that pitiless man,
But now I am once again lonely - I have become Natavan [1].

(1) Natavan - miserable.

Translated by Dorian Rottenberg

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