Homa Mojadidi Translates Bedil Dehlavi

Ghazal 557

I’m the silent breathing one, the mischief of my melody is this
Drunk from the well-spring of awareness, my color is this

For a lifetime I’ve been a captive to humility’s bent form
Until my wings and feathers turn to music, my harp is this

Restless with life’s turbulence, what can I do?
I’m the balance of breath’s fancies; my rock is this

My yawn decorates the cup of existence
Don’t break my intoxication like the dawn, my color is this

The wave of the wine, the pearl’s luster—what fancies are these?
I’m the glory of this palpitating world and my honor is this

I’ve no taste for art nor do I possess any genius
I’m your Majnun and my knowledge and culture is this

I’ve enriched whoever I’ve wandered with
The creed and quality of my struggle is this

Friends, it’s a crime to leave behind a weary heart
If the foot forms a blister, my faltering is this

Being Bedil, one without a heart, I’m not allowed to see the beloved’s beauty
I possess no mirror, what can I do, my rust1 is this


1 Before glass-backed mirrors, polished bronze, copper, or silver plates were used, which easily oxidized or tarnished, leaving the surface spotted or “rusted”. In Persian–Sufi poetry, the clear mirror symbolizes the purified heart reflecting divine beauty, while rust marks signified corruption or obstruction of vision.

Ghazal 2155

Drunk since pre-eternity    I worship the wine of origin
Like the grape    I bear glints of glass in my side

If they proffer me to the wind    I’ll dance on happily
I’m made from humility’s clay    my disposition doesn’t falter

We’re in need of the sun    tell the shadows to vanish
If me-ness disappears    nothing remains in my heart but you  

My lofty meaning     requires an acute understanding
Traveling through my thoughts isn’t easy    I’m a mountain and I have hills 

Descend from thoughts of me    become Him, let you-ness flower
Reflect a moment    the point I’ve made is apt

Truth’s not outside of you    wine doesn’t ferment outside its casket
Pretention’s way isn’t lost    it’s my expression that falters

My heart is ridden with holes    from your arrows
Delirious with desire    I’m the beehive filled with honey

Even a rock     would weep for the state I’m in
I’m alive without you    I’m dead without dying

Abandon all worries and cares    break off from all desires
Enjoy wine and life’s pleasures    I do this too

My powerful verse, Bedil    gives rise to waves of meaning
If I start a couplet    it becomes a ghazal 

 

Translator’s Note:

Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil (1642–1720), often referred to simply as Bedil, remains one of the most challenging poets in the Persian canon to render into English. His dense language, syntactic complexity, highly imaginative metaphors, and self-invented compound expressions create a texture that is both dazzling and disorienting. To approach Bedil is to enter a hall of mirrors, where paradox and riddle are not ornamental devices but the very fabric of meaning-making. His verse has confounded Persian readers and enthusiasts for centuries, precisely because it demands both intellectual rigor and knowledge of his deep metaphysical beliefs, such as humility before the divine, sincerity of purpose, and the pursuit of perfection through self-knowledge and purification. However, once one begins to decipher his riddle-like verse, the reward is immense: a glimpse of a poet-philosopher grappling with and expressing the most fundamental questions of existence in the most beautiful lyrical voice.

Bedil’s poetry constantly interrogates the precarious and fleeting nature of life, the fragility of the human condition, and the turmoil of a self grappling with perpetual longing. In preparing these translations, I have chosen ghazals that represent Bedil’s signature concerns and stylistic daring — pieces that stand at the intersection of Sufi metaphysics and literary innovation. They highlight his propensity to philosophize while also demonstrating his immense imaginative reach, his ability to stretch the Persian language into new and unexpected shapes. My aim has been to preserve the integrity of the couplet structure and the intricacies of Bedil’s thought, while acknowledging that no English rendering can fully reproduce the rhyme and music of the original. To try to maintain the lyrical quality, I have employed poetic devices such as alliteration, internal rhyme, and rhythmical phrasing, so that the English version may carry at least an echo of the original’s prosody.

As part of a larger project to bring Bedil’s ghazals into English in a sustained and coherent body of work, these translations also serve as a meditation on the act of translation itself. What does it mean to translate a poet whose very method is to trouble meaning, to insist on bewilderment (ḥayrat) as a mode of truth? My approach has been guided by a willingness to remain faithful to that bewilderment — to allow the strangeness and difficulty of Bedil’s verse to persist in English, while also making it accessible to contemporary readers. In this way, the translations aim not to resolve Bedil’s riddles but to invite readers into them, to experience the paradoxical beauty of a poet who, though underrepresented in world literature, deserves to stand alongside the greats of the Persian tradition.

 

Mirza Abdul Qadir Baidel, also known as Bedil Dehlavi, was born in 1642 in Patna, India, and is considered one of the greatest Indo-Persian poets. Bedil was a leading exponent of the Sabk-e-Hindi (Indian style) of Persian poetry, characterized by intricate metaphors, philosophical depth, and linguistic innovation. His poetic oeuvre encompasses various forms, including ghazals, qasidas, rubaiyat, and masnavis. His famous works include Char Ansur, Tilismi Hairat, Turi Marifat, Muhite Azam, and Ruqa’at. While well-regarded in Tajikistan, Pakistan, and India, he is especially revered in Afghanistan, where a genre is dedicated to studying his unique poetics, called Bedilshenasi (Bedil studies).

 

Homa Mojadidi is an Afghan American poet and translator. Her translation work has been published in Asymptote, Washington Square Review, and longlisted for Deep Vellum’s Best Literary Translations, 2025. Her poems have appeared in One Art, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Blue Mountain Review, Gulf Stream Review, Mudlark, and Calyx (forthcoming). In her own poetry, Homa explores the themes of loss, exile, memory, and mysticism. Homa has an MA in English Literature from the University of North Florida and an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in poetry from George Mason University.

 

 BACK TO ISSUE

 BACK TO FOLIO