India In Love: A Collection Of Poems — Agents of Ishq (2024)

Do you “set out in ecstasy”? Have you ever been “pierced by a love-wound”? Perhaps you pine for a “dark bearded young man”?

From two-millenia-old Tamil Sangam verse and 18th century Punjabi lyrics to queer poetry from 2016, we bring you a crackling selection of poems about love and its varied accompaniments -- joy, longing, pain, desire, and among many other things, sex!

Poem 1: By Mirabai (Marwari), 1498CE to 1546 CE

तेरा कोई नहीं रोकणहार, मगन होय मीरा चली। (टेर )

लाज, सरम , कुल की मरजादा, सिर से दूर करी।

मान �

पमान दोउ धर पटके , निकली हूँ ज्ञान गली।। १

ऊंची �

टरिया लाल किवड़िया , निर्गुण सेझ बिछी

पचरंगी भालर सुभ सोहै , फूलन फूल कली।। २

बाजूबंद कड़ू ला सोहे , माँग सिंदूर भरी।

सुमीरन थाल हाथ में लीन्हां , सोभा �

धिक भली ।। ३

सेज सुखमरण मीरा सोवै , धन सुभ आज धरी।

तुम जावो राणा घर �

पने , मेरी तेरी नाहिं सरी ।। ४

Translation

(Translated By Ruth Vanita)

No one can stop you - Mira set out in ecstasy.

Modesty, shame, family honour - all these I put aside.

Flinging away praise and blame, i took the the path of knowledge.

Tall the towers, red the windows - a formless bed is spread,

Auspicious the five coloured necklace, made of flowers and buds,

Beautiful armlets and bracelets, vermilion in my hair parting

The tray of remembrance in my hand- a beauty more true

Mira sleeps on the bed of happiness - auspicious the hour today.

Rana you go to your house - you and I cannot pull together.

No one can stop you- Mira sets out in ecstacy

Poem 2: Old Sangam Poetry (Tamil), 1st Century BCE- 5th Century BCE

�

டி புனை தொடுகழல், மை �

ணல் காளைக்கு என்

தொடி கழித்திடுதல் யான் யாய் �

ஞ்சுவலே;

�

டு தோள் முயங்கல் �

வை நாணுவலே;

என் போல் பெரு விதுப்புறுக என்றும்

ஒரு பாற் படா�

தாகி,

இரு பாற் பட்ட இம் மையல் ஊரே.

Translation

(Translated by Chenthil Nathan, sourced from https://oldtamilpoetry.com/)

Puranaanooru – 83

I fear mother noticing that my bangles slip out

as I pine for the anklet wearing, dark bearded young man;

I’m shy to embrace his valorous shoulders in public;

May this indecisive town which doesn’t decide

either in favour of mother or myself

but vacillates between us two,

tremble as much as I do.

Poem 3: Heer by Waris Shah (Punjabi), 1766

sohni vich dareya de dubb moi

Translation

(Translated By Rudraksh Cheeba, sourced from https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Gurdas-Maan/Couplets-of-Heer)

Pierced with a love-wound

Sohni threw herself in that love-river and drowned

Miyan Waris Shah, if you would shrug off this thing called your life

Then you can embrace no better ailment than love

This love won’t ripen without heads sacrificed

These bonds they aren’t easy to keep

Their wounds stubbornly refuse to heal

Who’ve been pierced by the dagger of love

Heer says to Ranjha, calamity has struck

Look, I’m left with no shame or guilt!

I’ve become a jogan, and smeared my forehead with hermit’s ash

O dawn, for you feel no pity for my wound

No denizens of the sensible world roam here

Only lovers survive and thrive

Each facing their true inner being

To account for themselves on Doomsday!

Poem 4: Zabanon Ka Bosa ByFahmida Riaz (Urdu),b. 1945-

زبانوں کے رس �

یں یہ کیسی �

ہک ہے!

یہ بوسہ کہ جس سے �

حبت کی صہبا کی اڑتی ہے خوشبو

یہ بد �

ست خوشبو جو گہرا غنودہ نشہ لا رہی ہے

یہ کیسا نشہ ہے

�

رے ذہن کے ریزے ریزے �

یں ایک آنکھ سی کھل گئی ہے

ت�

اپنی زباں �

یرے �

نہ �

یں رکھے جیسے پاتال سے �

یری جاں کھینچتے ہو

یہ بھیگا ہوا گر�

Translation

(Translated by Patricia L. Sharpe, sourced from rekhta.org)

Deep myrrh-scented kiss,

deep with the tongue, suffused

with the musky perfume

of the wine of love: I'm reeling

with intoxication, languid

to the point of numbness,

yet with a mind so roused

an eye flies open

in every cell.

And you! Sucking my breath,

my life, from its deepest,

most ancient abode.

Kiss.

Wet, warm, dark.

Pitch black!

Like a moonless night,

when rain comes flooding in.

A glint of runaway time

fleeing in the wilderness of my soul

seems to be drawing closer.

I sway across a shadowy bridge.

It's about to end, I think,

somewhere ahead,

there is light.

Poem 5: I want to 377 you so bad* By Akhil Katyal (English), 2016

till even the sheets hurt i want to

ache your knees singe your skin

line you brown breathe you in i want to

mouth you in words neck you in red

i want to beg your body insane into sepals

i want to 377 you like a star falling off the brown

i want to feel you till my nails turn water

i want to suck you seven different skies

i want to be a squatter in your head when

it sleeps when its dark i want to break laws

with you in bed and in streets and in parks

*This refers to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial era law that criminalises hom*osexual acts. In 2013, the Supreme Court of India upheld the legality of this law. LGBT activists and other human rights legal practitioners have launched several challenges to this law.

(Source: Katyal, A. (2016). I want to 377 you so bad*. Feminist Dissent, (1), 117-118. Retrieved from: http://journals.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/feministdissent/article/view/12)

Poem 6: A TIME FOR BIRDSONG by Sukirtharani,2013

(Translated from the Tamil byLakshmi Holmström, sourced from http://poetry.sangamhouse.org)

You and I travel together

as if we were leading a bridegroom,

carrying a vessel of picked flowers.

Like a practised guide, I point out

the ashen mouth of a volcano,

crevices of mountains like human thighs,

deep valleys.

Forest streams melt our clothes

and hold us tight in their arms.

Trees shed upon us the embryo scent

wrapped deep within their flowers.

We make love inside the waters

as fallen jasmine cover us

and our bodies’ sap flows away, foaming.

You hold out your hands to me, pleading

to stay longer in my body’s embrace.

I climb ashore, naked.

Birds never forget

when they should sing.

Our thanks to Anjali Panjabi and Rana Safvi for their help in suggesting some poems here.