Arise, Waris Shah, from the crypts of the dead, speak!
Unfold the next page of love's sacred book.
Arise, Waris Shah, from the crypts of the dead, speak!
Unfold the next page of love's sacred book.
A daughter of Punjab once wept, you wrote her lament,
Now, millions of daughters weep, to you, Waris Shah, they’re sent.
Oh, sufferer of the sufferers, where is your Punjab now?
Today, corpses lie scattered, the Chenab runs red and deep.
Someone has poisoned the five rivers’ sleep.
In the waters, poison they did instill,
And the earth, with that poison, they did fill.
In this fertile land, poison blooms,
Inch by inch, the redness consumes.
Arise, Waris Shah, from the crypts of the dead, speak!
Unfold the next page of love’s sacred book.
The air, a venom, flows, a snake it became,
Each branch of the tree, a serpent's flame.
The first bite numbs, the incantations fade,
The second bite poisons, the body betrayed.
Like needles, the stings, the people undone,
Punjab's limbs, moment by moment, are overcome.
Arise, Waris Shah, from the crypts of the dead, speak!
Unfold the next page of love’s sacred book.
The songs in the lanes are shattered, the spinning wheels are still,
The gatherings of friends, the spinning ceased to fulfill.
The beds are now the stones, the lovers cast aside,
The swings of the trees, the wind did break and hide.
Arise, Waris Shah, from the crypts of the dead.
Where the breath of love once played its tune, now silence cries.
Ranjha's brothers have forgotten their ways, their eyes,
The blood spilled on the earth, the graves overflow,
The princesses of love weep in the mausoleums below.
Today, all have become thieves of beauty and love's art,
Where shall we find another Waris Shah, with a loving heart?
Arise, Waris Shah, from the crypts of the dead, speak!
Unfold the next page of love’s sacred book.
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