Love Poem to a Boy

One with the eyes of gazelles hunted

the bird of my heart,

Robbed me of my steadfastness,

robbed me, poor lover, of rest.

Counsel and good advice are

no longer of use –

There is no use any more, friends,

in counseling me!

Both poem and calligraphy are by Mir ’Ali.

Illuminated manuscript, leaf from the Shah Jahan album, ca. 1640.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.