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70 / Bhai Vir Singh
objects like flowers, birds and trees. Characters from the
romantic lore of Punjab such as Heer and Ranjha, Sassi and
Punnu, Sohni and Mahiwal became living figures of flesh and
blood in his fancy and theyhelpedin giving a concrete shape
to the outpourings of his soul. Sometimes places of history
such as Guru Gobind Singh's shrine at Paonta Sahib, on the
bank of the Jamuna, the Qutab and Roshan Ara's mausoleum
laid hold of his imagination, touching it with earthly reality.
His deeply cultivated intellect and instinct for form kept
his emotion in control and moulded it into well-defined and
easily recognizable patterns. He had a natural gift of music.
The liquid harmonies of hisversefell gentlyandsoothinglyon
thesoul. Manyofhis smallerpoemshad,inhislifetime, become
partofPunjab's popularpoetictradition: suchwastheirnatural
grace, music and finish.
I growlowthat my springmay remain obscured.
I hide myself in the hills that no envious eye may look
upon me.
I have taken my complexion from the skies,
And itis ofno loudhue;
I came into the world begging the gift of humility from
my Creator.
I drink heavenly dew andfeed onthe sun's ray,
And I playwith the moonbeam by night.
I live happily enwrappedin my ownfragrance
And feel shyof meetingthe beebyday.
Whenthewinds come blowingsportivelyto twine round
me,
I shake not my head, nor produce a sound.
It is my wish to remain unknown and thus to cease in
anonymity. 1
This is the song of the Banafsha flower on a Kashmiri
hillside. But it renders the poet's own mood of tremulous joy,
his vaguehopethathe maynot be deprived ofthisfelicity and
his desire for an humble, anonymous existence. Humility and
1. "Banafsha da Phul" in LahirHulare, pp. 33-34
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