The ginans are the devotional poetry/music of the Ismaili community of South Asia, written in a variety of Indic languages. I purchased a copy of Ali S. Asani’s Ecstasy and Enlightenment recently and wanted to share a particularly nice example with you all. So, enjoy…
‘Whenever the love kindles within the self for the Beloved,
That love will wipe out your ego.
Night and day he (the lover) is awake and cannot sleep;
Continuously his eyes weep.
It is as if the heart is set afire
With the flame which the lover himself turns into fire.
The soul feels (such cries) as if it were a bird
That it would have flown away to catch a glimpse of the Beloved.
For the love of the Beloved, I would sacrifice myself.
O (how I yearn) to go and embrace Him!
My Beloved has pierced me so with His love,
That out of separation I am groping about like a person insane.
The one who is wounded in the heart,
How can he sleep in peace?
Day and night I cannot sleep;
Every day tears flow from my eyes.
I am dying, my Beloved, because of You,
and do You not feel pity (for me)?
(Attributed to Pir Sadr al-Din)
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Ismailimail 
Abdur – thank-you for sharing this wonderful poetry! If I’m not mistaken, this translation seems to be of selected verses of ‘Bujh Niranjan’
If you enjoyed this book, I would also recommend ‘A Scent of Sandalwood: Indo-Ismaili Religious Lyrics’ by Aziz Esmail. A brief but interesting symposis can be found at the following address:
http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=105688
Secondly, Ali Asani (author of the book to which you have referred) has also been working on communicating the wonderful tapestry that is Islam. Here is an excellent article from the Harvard Gazette about his efforts:
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/03.01/03-islam.html
Lastly, I wanted to highlight – and you have alluded to this already – that there is a strong and long-standing link between Ismailism and Sufism. This is evident not only in ginans, but also qasidas recited by the Ismailis of Central Asia (Afghanistan and Tajikistan in particular). Some of these are attributed to Nasir Khusrow, Jalaledin Rumi as well as Shams Tabriz (who some believe to have a particularly strong connection to Ismailism).
This comment has been multi-posted at the following blogs:
http://thecorner.wordpress.com/2007/05/03/a-ginan-on-love/
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/a-ginan-on-love/
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Salaams A Walli,
Yes you’re right. I took this from Ali Asani’s book on the subject and this is indeed the Bujh Niranjan.
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
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