Here is another poem from the mystic weaver Kabir.  The paradoxical image of the absurdly thirsty fish is often repeated in one way or another, but how many succeed in recognising such a paradox in themselves? The references in the final stanza are to sacred places of pilgrimage: Mathura is the city where the lord Krishna was born, and Kashi is another name for Varanasi, the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism.

Fish

The fish in the water
is racked by thirst:
I hear about it
and burst out laughing.

What you’re looking for
is right at home;
and yet you roam from forest to forest,
full of gloom.

Without self-knowledge
the world’s all make-believe:
what’s Mathura,
what’s Kashi?

Tr. Vinay Dharwadker