He is wise who in this season
Clings to the stove like a madman.
 
Narrating this, my tongue is coated with ice.
My breath, it seems, has frozen to make another tongue.
 
And when the chill turns chillier still
Like the ear, even the mouth turns still.
 
The tear which drops from the crying eye
Freezes like the wax dripping down the candle.
 
All this is known to the wise ant
Which entombs itself when alive.
 
This winter’s tale I can no longer narrate 
For the tongue is now an icicle in my mouth.

Read more about Gani Kashmiri (Mulla Muhammad Tahir Ghani), considered to be one of the greatest Persian writers from the Mughal period. Extract courtesy: Daak

Source: Tahir Ghani, The Captured Gazelle, Penguin

Trans: Mufti Mudassir Farooqi and Nusrat Bazaz