Poetry as Resistance

These verses are drawn from the voices of Kashmir’s most resonant poets — Lalla Ded, Habba Khatoon, Mahjoor, Agha Shahid Ali, Nund Rishi, Rehman Rahi and others.

Across centuries, these verses chronicle the region’s spiritual quest, its collective grief, and an enduring longing for peace and justice. In times of occupation, loss, and exile, they offer not despair, but resilience — whether in a nightingale’s cry, a mystic’s silence, or a letter never delivered. These poems remind us that even in silence, Kashmir speaks: of freedom, of memory, of identity. They transcend time, echoing through valleys once vibrant, now shadowed by conflict, and yet they carry hope like light filtering through chinar leaves. To read them is to listen—to Kashmir, through the voices that never stopped humming.

One

“Come, O Gardener!” (“Vwolo haa baagvaano”)

By Kashmiri poet Mahjoor (Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor) and translated by Triloki Nath Raina / Braj B. Kachru

Excerpt in Kashmiri (Roman transliteration):

“Vwolo haa baagvaano navbahaaruk shaan paadaa kar… Karee kus bulbulaa aazaad panjaras manz tsú naalaan chhukh…”

English version:

“Come, Gardener!

Create the glory of a new spring;

Let the gardens bloom, the nightingales sing.

Who will free the captive bird crying in the cage?

You must forge your own freedom…”

Two

“Outside, I Was Told”

Original in Kashmiri by Rehman Rahi, translated by Dr Huzaifa Pandit

“All awareness severed,

Surroundings throbbed in my insides…

What then if sunshine is lost and darkness begins to weave its snare?

I will not doze…

Eyes expectant…

When spring will again stretch its arms… Heir of epochs.”

Three

He who Sows the seed

by Nund Rishi (Sheikh-ul-Alam RA)

Original verse in Kashmiri translated by Ghulam Muhammad Shad

“He who sows the seed reaps the crop.

You careless man, realise yourself:

You’ll reap here what you’ve sown there.

They’ll weigh all sins and virtues,

He who sows the seed collects the fruit.”

Four

Gulabi Nan (“Rose-colored Bride”)

original verse in Kashmiri by 16th century poet Habba Khatoon & translated by Bashir Bhat

“O rose-colored bride of summer,

In exile I wander, detached from the nest.

My heart is a begging bird at your doorstep,

No breeze of memory visits, no voice calls me home.”

Five

Vākh 66-67 by Lalla Ded

Original verse in Kashmiri by 14th century mystic Lalla Ded, whose couplets and small poems are called Vakh. Translated by Ranjit Hoskote in this book “I Lalla”

“Who’s the garland-maker, who’s his wife? … The mind-garland-maker, desire-wife… they will sprinkle Him with moon-nectar…”

English translation

“Come, Gardener!

Create the glory of a new spring;

Let the gardens bloom, the nightingales sing.

Who will free the captive bird crying in the cage?

You must forge your own freedom…”

Curated by Dr. Tabeenah Anjum, a journalist and visual storyteller born and raised in Kashmir. She presently lives between Srinagar and Jaipur.