Zeb Un Nissa

O COME, my Love, for I am worn and wasted,
I have no longer strength nor will to wait;
My heart bears countless wounds and I have tasted
The poisonous anguish of the shafts of fate.

Breeze of the dawn, come, see the wild confusion
The fell simoom has wrought in all my bowers;
Only my heart’s blood with a strange illusion
Colours the parterre erst so gay with flowers.

Just so Love’s flowers are blasted. Other traces
Are none but hearts wounded and bleeding sore.
All that is fair the surge of time effaces:
Khusrau is gone and Shirin is no more.

Poetry by Zeb-un-Nissa. The following passage has been taken from Jahan-e-Rumi. It was previously published in the Friday Times.

Mughal history ignores women of the empire, including Emperor Aurangzeb’s daughter Zeb-un-Nissa: patron of the arts, poet, and a keeper of several lovers – according to rumours. The eldest daughter, she was Aurangzeb’s close companion for several years. She was born in 1638 to Dilras Bano of the Persian Safavid dynasty. Loved by Aurangzeb, she was named carefully to reflect his station.

A favourite, she was exposed to the affairs of the Mughal court. With a sound education in the arts, languages, astronomy and sciences of the day, Zeb-un-Nissa turned into an aware and sensitive princess. She never married and kept herself occupied by poetry and a spiritual Sufi quest.