Mohammad Kutubuddin Al Helal "What are you, love?"

 

What are you, love?

By
Mohammad Kutubuddin.

What are you, love?

Are you a teenager, a young man !
Or the eyes of an old woman bent under the weight of age,
Or the lips of a rose that open the veil of dawn

Are you a man or a woman?
Or a union of the souls of both, a virgin!

Are you soft ?
Or a hard iron rod like steel !
Or a stone standing like a mountain !

Are you a woman's shame,
Or her daily attire,
Or a tender mood folded in a man's chest?

Are you a mother's gentle caress?
The kiss of mother's love lifted by a gentle call,
Or the shouts of a father and the roar of a merchant's voice?

Are you a sunny afternoon,
The arrogant face of a child?
Or the happiness of a story told in a sweet voice of a child?

Love, are you the running daughter of adolescence,
The chatter of friends,
Or the charioteer of the old man lying in the old age of loneliness?

Love, are you the queen of the rose, the lotus, or the vase of all flowers?

Love, are you the arrogant face of a wife,
Or the sorrow of a husband's anger,
Or the messenger of the meeting of the two?

Love, are you the rejection of holy love,
Or the story of the eternal union of the two?

Love, are you the wonderful romance of love,
The Himalayas of suffering?
Or the fear of a lover's betrayal?

Love, are you the bride of heaven,
Or the noon of hell?
Is love, are you the caress of life,
Or the painful blanket of loneliness at night?


04.04.2026