Dil aaj Shaayar

Gambler/Neeraj/SD Burman/Kishorkumar/1975

Today the heart turns a poet
the pain my verses
and the night is the lyric.
May it please you to listen,
you so accustomed to listening to others' poetry.

See the way I lived for your sake:
kept stitching up the wounds you inflicted
with the thread of my tears;
In the festivities of your Love
gambled with the Pain you gave
against Fate;
Game it was that I won in life
and lost with you.

The way I loved you
has no parallel.
I was almost nothing and you scoffed at.
I got burnt and became the shining one.
Fidelity lives through me
and your concerts stay young.
The world will search for my traces
when I am no more.

This love is not a toy
anyone can buy.
Suffer its pangs for life
and then you may catch its glimpse,
like me.
I am a traveller no matter which journey
and will go away.
But I will come back to claim
the stakes I have put my life on.