Now, that I have closed the doors
of the city of love
upon myself
and have thrown the key
of each gate
into the jade-eyed sea of oblivion,
this little timorous feeling
is so consoling.

Beyond the forbidding walls of the prison,
in a small lane
of the old walled city,
there is a little window
still open in my name.

Translated from the Urdu by Baidar Bakht and Leslie Lavigne.