Let me drink this poison as if it is a drink
without spilling even a drop for the ground to suck.
Give me the courage to go wander with
a beggar's bowl right now;
I'll strip this eagle's garb, clothe me in dove's dress,
oh! Bande Nawaj.

The crystals from your hills,
the black champa seed from your woods,
the fakeers' songs, the chillum smoke, hand cuffs, leg fetters,
the mystic rings on all your ten fingers -
Oh! Bande Nawaj,
cease my self.

The smile of the infant
suckling, swinging, reclining amid your graves,
the mischievous eyes of the shrouded breast-feeder,
the howls of the mad maid banging her head against your walls;
oh Bande Navaj,
let me live the joy of this graveyard.

Give me the courage to go wander with
a beggar's bowl right now;

Clangor of your strides in the dreams,
chaos in the sky,
the cracked feet brushed by the sesame pollen,
the smile, the whispering youth on illicit dating,
the pale half moon rising from nowhere,
the flashing nose-ring on the twisted nose of the beggar woman
who has just returned after entertaining a client;
I am captive.
With my forehead on your feet I kiss myself.

Letting this joy flow inside me and rain down outside,
in this night of pale half moon, in this starry night,
show me your presence
in this sky devoid of lightning, devoid of thunder;
Your wind, your light, this earth is the thorny shoes
under your anchored feet,
your consorts are the ghostly souls endlessly
ambling around the streets of your city;
bearing raw flesh and blood these beauties
saunter with streaming fire in their palm,
breathing beauty,
Aha, their eyes, their sharp sweat,
their birdlike feet astir
without the dust of your ground disturbed.

Hey, Gesudaraj,
cease all these that the eye sees
I am leaving this place.

Show me the way to that absent other city
Hey, Bande Nawaj!

Translated by Kamalakar Bhat