Lalleshwari

Lalleshwari (1320–1392), locally known mostly as Lal Ded, was a Kashmiri mystic of the Kashmir Shaivism school of philosophy in the Indian subcontinent. She was one of the first poets of early modern Kashmiri language, and she developed a new style of spontaneous poetic composition known as "Vaakh" (literally, oral style). Out of her original compositions less than 300 are available today.

Poetry

 * I can dispel the clouds, drain the sea, or cure someone hopelessly ill. But to change the mind of a fool is beyond me.
 * I trapped my breath in the bellows of my throat, and a lamp blazed up inside, showing me who I really was. I crossed the darkness holding fast to that lamp.
 * I didn't believe in it for a moment but I gulped down the wine of my own voice. And then I wrestled with the darkness inside me, knocked it down, clawed at it, ripped it to shreds.
 * The Poems of Lal Ded, poem 48, p. 10
 * It covers your shame, keeps you from shivering. Grass and water are the food it asks. Who taught you, priest-man, to feed this breathing thing to your thing of stone?
 * The Poems of Lal Ded, poem 59, p. 15

From Kashmiri Poetry

 * yi yi karu'm suy artsun yi rasini vichoarum thi mantar yihay lagamo dhahas partsun suy Parasivun tanthar.
 * Translation : Whatever work I did became worship of the Lord; Whatever word I uttered became a prayer; Whatever this body of mine experienced became the sadhana of Saiva Tantra illumining my path to Parmasiva.
 * Lal Ded Vekhas
 * Whatever work I've done, whatever I have though, was praise with my body and praise hidden inside my head.
 * Naked Songs, p. 18