Where all the beauty and character gathers. A mystical ode to the beloved

  

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

 

This is a famous poem attributed to Amir Khusrau,  Some verses (in red) are recited as devotional utterances of praise for the Prophet ﷺ in my homeland of Kashmir

   خَطِّ سَبْز و لَبِ لَعْل و رُخِ زِیبا دَارِی
حُسْنِ یُوسُف، دَمِ عِیسىٰ، یَدِ بَیْضا دَارِی 

شِیوَه و شَکْل و شَمائِل، حَرَکات و سَکَنات

آنْچِه خُوبان هَمَه دارند، تُو تَنْها دَارِی        

 

 

خَطِّ سَبْز و لَبِ لَعْل و رُخِ زِیبا دَارِی

حُسْنِ یُوسُف، دَمِ عِیسىٰ، یَدِ بَیْضا دَارِی

You have the soft first down, ruby lips, and a radiant face;

you possess Joseph’s beauty, Jesus’ breath, and Moses’ shining white hand.

Brief explanation:

In classical Persian, خَطِّ سَبْز means the first soft tender facial down on a beautiful face, a conventional sign of youth and beauty, not a literal green line. Then the verse rises from physical beauty to sacred allusion: Joseph stands for unsurpassed beauty, Jesus for life-giving breath, and the “white hand” of Moses for miraculous radiance. 

 

شِیوَه و شَکْل و شَمائِل، حَرَکات و سَکَنات

آنْچِه خُوبان هَمَه دارند، تُو تَنْها دَارِی         

Your bearing, your form, your features, your every movement and stillness

Whatever is distributed among all the beautiful ones ,  is gathered whole in one being (you).

Brief explanation:

 شَمائِل is broader than mere appearance; it also includes traits, qualities, and disposition. So the claim is not only that the addressee looks beautiful, but that every grace of presence, conduct, and character—usually divided among many—is gathered whole in one being.

  تا تَبَسُّم نَکُنی، عَقْل نَگُویَد هَرگِز

کَندَرین آبِ خِضْر، لُؤلُؤِ لالا دَارِی

Until you smile, reason can never say 

that in this Water of Life you conceal a lustrous pearl.

Brief explanation:

To my ear, this is the most delicate couplet. آبِ خِضْر is the Water of Life associated with Khizr, and Persian lexicography also uses the “spring of life” as a figure for the beloved’s mouth. لُؤلُؤِ لالا means a bright, lustrous pearl. The pearl is most naturally the teeth, hidden until the smile reveals them, though the image can also suggest precious speech emerging from a life-giving mouth.

دِل و دِین بُرْدی و هُوش و خِرَد و صَبْر و قَرار

دِیگَر از خُسْرَوِ بی‌دِل چِه تَمَنّا داری

You have taken my heart and faith, my wits, my reason, my patience, and my inner peace; 

what more can you want from Khusro, now left without a heart?

Brief explanation:

This is the closing signature-couplet. The ending of total surrender. The beloved has already taken everything inward and outward, so nothing remains but the poet’s question. I read بِی‌دِل here as an adjective, “heart-lost” or “bereft of heart,”  hich gives the closing line its force (not as a reference to the poet Bedil.)