Shah Karim (1536-1623)

The baited hook, O fish!

Which has pierced your throat.

Has taken in many of your kind.

And thrown them on the ground.

If on seeing the string from a distance

You had moved away quickly,

The hook would not have brought you

O fish! in this difficulty.

——————–

Do not go about rebuking

Treat them also well who are uncivil to you;

If you desire to meet the Beloved,

Consider their faults as virtues.

——————

The sea does not destroy the directions

Or overflow the high and low land;

It’s not that all ceases to be, except the One

Each being lives on in Him.

————————

Mistake not the speech

Of animals, insects and birds

As their own.

By God!

This tumult and music Is of the Beloved Himself.

———–

Those who churn themselves with questions

Are brave and wise;

For a good trait in a person

Is like butter in milk.

——-

Some poems from Shah Karim (1536-1623) of Matiari (then called Mat Alvi) in the present Nawabshah district of Eastern Sindh.

The translation, with my minor editing, is from Professor Motilal Jotwani, Sufis of Sindh.

Saaiin Professor Jotwani writes: “In his young age, Shah Abdul Karim looked after his family well. The sudden death of Sayid Jalal [his father] placed on him the new responsibility… He worked as a labourer in the field and earned the family’s livelihood. He served his mother devotedly in her old age.

“When on the field, he would often yield to his fellow labourers’ requests and sing the baits [his couplets] in his sweet and sonorous voice .. Rhyme and rhythm brought ease and flow to their task of the day.”

The Sindhi scholar Saaiin Allama Daudpoto called the Shah of Matiari the ‘Chaucer of Sindhi’.