ਮਾਥੇ ਪੀਰ ਸਰੀਰਿ ਜਲਨਿ ਹੈ ਕਰਕ ਕਰੇਜੇ ਮਾਹੀ ॥
maathay peer sareer jalan hai karak karayjay maahee.
My head aches, my body is burning, and my heart is filled with anguish.
ਐਸੀ ਬੇਦਨ ਉਪਜਿ ਖਰੀ ਭਈ ਵਾ ਕਾ ਅਉਖਧੁ ਨਾਹੀ ॥੨॥
aisee baydan upaj kharee bha-ee vaa kaa a-ukhaDh naahee. ||2||
Such is the disease that has struck me; there is no medicine to cure it. ||2||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
My head is heavy, my body worn, my heart carries a deep and quiet ache.
This is a longing so real that no ordinary remedy can touch it, nothing on the shelf can cure it.
Some aches are really a longing that only love can answer.
Bhikhan describes real suffering, but the project frames it as a longing that points beyond itself: the deepest ache is one only love can answer. The physical hardship is named plainly and briefly, then lifted toward its true medicine, which the closing verse will name. The pain becomes a doorway, not a dead end.
A Question to Sit With
When you feel sad in a way nothing seems to fix, what actually helps?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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