Kabir in this poem mocks those desperately seeking the divine far and wide when all they need to do is look within in self realization:
DEEP IN THE WATER A THIRSTY FISH
( PANI BEECH MEEN PYASI)
It makes me laugh to think
That a fish in the water
Thirsts for a drink.
From forest to forest he sadly roams
In search of a jewel
Lying at home.
It makes me laugh to think
A musk-deer is seeking
The very fragrance
Which emanates from him.
Without knowledge of the Self
What use O pilgrim,
At Mathura or Kasi
To go looking for him?
It makes me laugh to think
That a fish in the water
Can thirst for a drink.
The perfect pilgrim
Credit: The Met. New York
Search for The Soul - Indrajit Rathore 
We already have what we seek.
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when our subject and our object begin to join -then we get to know
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It makes ME cry.
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that laughter was with tears
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I love kabir,so simple yet so true. Very well translated.
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Yes so very beautiful. Like the other Kabir poem you translated …very moving!
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wasn’t easy girl – took me several hours but the following – among europens – u wont believe it – now come see meer’s next – ISKCON graciously allowed meera’s ‘desendant’ happily to use whatever he wanted!
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I’ve always loved this poem. Thank you for adding it to the day!
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Thank you for translating Kabirs poem…simple and easy to understand.. ‘without knowledge of ones self what use is seeking God’ So true!
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could that be you jiya?
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Yes, a true poem.
One little remark. Isnt ‘smile’ a better fitting expression than ‘laugh’ in the first part?
I have the feeling that this Bakir was not someone to laugh about people. Or am I wrong?
(Beautiful haiku anyhow (:)
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I hear this song quite often on my ipod – claiming to be a kind of poet i undertook a translation with eyes closed to get the true sense – Kabir is not being polite for sure, he is deliberately mocking those who he feels fail to see the divinity within – with his laugh or amusement he wishes to jolt the people who do not wish to see – the word Hasi also translates as laugh – but smile can be substituted too.
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okay, than its a appropriate laugh I understand 🙂
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its not impolite in india to laugh at a thirsty fish!
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Rumi has a great quatrain similar to this Kabir poem.
I’ve been living on the lip of insanity,
Wanting to know reasons.
Knocking on a door it opens,
I’ve been knocking from the inside.
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Thanks – they are both great Sufi poets
Kabir however, though Muslim was revered as a poet whose inspiration was the Hindu Upanishadic thought about the universal presence of divinity (Transcendental Monism) in every atom of the world and of course evry human as his divine soul, a reflection of God or the oversoul – thus in this poem he asks the devout who seek god not to be like the thirsty fish looking for him everywhere, rather to look within to find him right inside.
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