the mundane delhi dust!!

"Mundane delhi Dust" is a nice phrase....reminds me of Ghalib's shair...
hai ab is ma'amoore mien, qeht e gham e ulfat Asad
ham ne mana ke rahen dilli mien, par khaenge kya

zauq ka ek umda shair on dust...

zeena saba ka dhoondti hai apni musht e khaak
baam e buland yaar ka hai aastana kya?

.....Ghubaar e kuu e oo boodam, nami daanam kuja raftam

Rashk e Farsi...recently found collection!

Yesterday I went to urdu ghar, delhi to pick up some books and guess what i found...another collection of Shuj'aa Khaawar's Poetry...well, the book made my day and i spent most of the day reading it. it will still take some time untill i can really appreciate and feel most of the incredible poetry in it....the book is called Rashk e Farsi...the title alludes to a couplet by Ghalib and carries along associations with the origin of Urdu, the Beauty of the language and the culture of Delhi. The couplet by Ghalib is....

Jo ye kahe ke rekhta, kyon ke ho Rashk e Farsi
Gufta e Ghalib ek baar paDh ke use suna, ke yoon!

rekhta is the name of hindvi or urdu, more like a pidgin, patois persian. Rashk e Farshi means the pride of Farsi. Gufta e Ghalib means the language of Ghalib, the conversation of Ghalib.

Well, the connection is one of Khaawar's identification with Ghalib and the assumption of the same attitude of pride in the self etc.

yahaan to qafile bhar ko akela chchod dete hain
sabhi chalte hon jis par, ham woh rasta chchod dete hain

muhazzib dost aakhir ham se barham kyon nahin honge?!!
Sag-e-izhar ko ham bhi to khulla chchod dete hain

(sag...pronounced like Mug, Pug means the dog of expression, muhazzib comes from tehzeeb, means cultured, barham means offended)

jo zinda ho use to maar dete hian yahan wale
jo marna chahta ho us ko zinda chchod dete hain.

there are others in a different mood....

Ho raha tha ek zamaana ham pe aashique jin dinon
yaad kar le ham hue the there aashique kin dinon!

ham ke rakhte hain teri zulf e girah geer mein jaan
qaid hon, khair se, to daal dein zanjeer mein jaan

there are some great ones...conversational...especially understood by the people of Old Delhi

Keh rahe the pehle mar jaa, aur us ke baad jee
kitni gehri shayari likhne lage? Ustaad ji?

Maktab mein paDhi thee jo Lugh'at chchod di wo 'Waeen'
kehti hai tabiyat ke naheen ko bhi likho-----'Naeen'

Finally, the best that i have read yet....

yeh kaisi girha dast e haqeeqat ne laga dee
khulta hi naheen ham se tasavvur ka kamar band!

girha...knot, dast e haqeeqat....hand of 'reality', tasavvur....imagination, kamar band....pyjama chord.


waiting for new responses...please write your opinions...

here again!

It has been a long time again since i have given anything new to my readers...i looked up the visitors and found that there are a few more than the usual number this time..i think i should keep up the practice of logging on the web. Otherwise so many things just drown...sink...and can hardly ever be retreived...let us go then, you and I.....till human voices wake us and we drown.

kya kahen safar apna khatm kyon nahin hota
fikr ki bulandi ya, hausle ki pastee hai?

SOME GHAZAL COUPLETS FROM IQBAL!

There was recently a very interesting discussion with friends on Iqbal's relationship with God in his poetry. Some interesting couplets came up in the discussion which i would like to share with my readers...there are times when he shows poetic temerity in talking with God in shairs like

Baagh e Bahisht se mujhe, hukm e safar diya tha kyon
Kaar e jahan daraaz hai, ab mera intezaar kar!

baagh e bahisht is the garden of paradise...he shows the haughtiness of a slave who refuses to do his masters bidding....saying why did you send me away...and if you did...now you have to wait until i finish my work elsewhere.

kaar e jahan...the work of the world...a world out of joint!...daraaz means to be spread out in a complicated way...what it means is that now that i am engrossed in the complicated work of the world...i'll come back only when i have finished it.

a similar couplet, also very different in other ways, is...

urooj e adam e khaki se anjum sehme jaate hain
ke yeh toota hua tara mah e kaamil na ban jaye

anjum, comes from najm, nujoom is the plural, means heavenly bodies...the play on khaki, which means made of mud, and the celestial is very pleasing. mah e kaamil is the full moon.

There are yet other couplets of the same temper...

Faarigh to na baithega mehshar mien junoon mera
ya apna gariban chaak, ya daaman e yazdan chaak!

faarigh hone ka matlab hai to be free and to have finished work. mehshar means the field or the state of qayamat, the last day, the day of judgement. daaman e yazdan is the daaman, the helm of God's dress.

every poet says certain almost insolent things in his poetic youth, it is towards his end that he realizes the implications and repents.

chup reh na saka hazrat e yazdaan mein bhi iqbal
karta koi is banda e ghustaakh ka moonh band

IQBAL...after a long time....boodha baloch explanations

i looked up the earlier posts and found that i had put up a long nazm by Iqbal which was liked by a close friend...probably for the sound of it...i agree that the diction in Iqbal is of a miltonic quality...needs a lot of explanation...here goes

ho tere bayaban ki hawa tujh ko gawara
is dasht se behtar hai na dilli na bukhara

i would like to recall to the D.U. Graduates the paper on american literature here...all the huck finn and whitman...to make them understand the play on bayaban and dasht against dilli, bukhara. dilli and bukhara have been two of the most beautiful and artistically productive civilizations but the wilderness...the dasht...the desert...is the space pointed towards by the poet. the poet advocates a constant movement outside and beyond the static and the stagnant...look at the word hawa...which gives a sense of movement.

jis simt mein chahe sifat e sail (read like Mal in malware) e rawaan chal
vadi ye hamari hai yeh sehra bhi hamara

look at the sense of freedom advocated by the old man to his son...sail e rawan means...like a free current...sehra means a desert.

ghairat hai badi cheez jahan e tag o dau mein
pehnati hai darvesh ko taaj e sar e daara

the beauty of the situational meaning of this one in the nazm is that with the above advocated freedom should be attached a sense of judiciousness and responsibility...it is this...the ghairat that is very important in a world that is torn apart by the tug of war(tag o dau) between the powerful...it is such judiciousness that shall promise a different kind of power...not corrupt...not blind.

haasil kisi kamil se yeh posheeda hunar kar
sunte hain ke sheeshe ko bana sakte hain khara

certainly one of the most beautiful couplets of the series...aren't our lives really the search for this hidden knowledge/talent (posheeda hunar)...the knowledge of how to make a flint (khaara) out of the glass that we are?...

the meanings of the last four couplets would follow in the next post...here is one for the people who read and encourage...a couplet by Iqbal again

phool ki patti se kat sakta hai heere ka jigar
mard e naa'daan par kalam e narm o naazuk be asar

a piece of shuja's mind...here again!

ham se bhi hal ho na paye apne zaati mas'ale
ham bhi hal karne lage hain kayenati mas'ale

kya sitam hai mas'ale uljhaye meri ehtiyat
aur suljhaye meri be ehtiyati mas'ale

zaati masale means individual problems, kayenati means cosmic problems
also look at the play on ehtiyat and be ehtiyati in the second shair.

it's been a long time!...

hello everyone,
it's been a long time since i have posted anything here...it certainly does not mean that there isn't anything more to say...only yesterday a close friend gave me a beautiful couplet.

jaata nahin kinaron se aage kisi ka dhyan
kab se pukarta hoon, yahan hoon, yahan hoon mein!

how true! how many people have the courage these days to look beyond the boundaries, to go beyond the limits...even the rebellions are choreographed so as to be incorporated within the limits

and then another one from another colleague and friend...

toofaan kar raha tha mere azm ka tawaaf
duniya samajh rahi thi ke kashti bhanwar mein hai!

azm means dignity, greatness, tawaaf karna means to go around something, but here it recalls the Haj pilgrimage where one has to do the rounds of the Kabah while praying to God.

irfan siddiqui...here again.

it is interesting to see how the poet of urdu ghazal can talk about political matters under the cover of symbols and allegories....here is an example from Irfan Siddiqui..which seems to hint at the constructions and surveillance that characterizes the system of power...also note the speciously innocuous nature of the shair..

us ko rehta hai hamesha meri vehshat ka khayal
mere gum gushta ghazaalon ka pata chahti hai!

vehshat aur ghazaalon mein ek bahut interesting relation hai. The deer of the deserts (ghazaala, gazel in english) is an image that is very appropriate for the aashique (not the lover in the english sense), in its running after a smell(of love) that seemingly comes from outside but is actually coming from within(like the smell of musk). vehshat, has to do with madness, of a very different kind, it can only be understood, if at all, by visualising the running around of a trapped gazel or impala. To be able to know where one's gazels are, is an idiomatic phrase for knowing the reach and ability of one's mind. madness is threatening to institutions and establishments precisely because the gazels of the mind jump over the boundaries within which they are trapped.

there is another one by Irfan, which makes a similar political comment, Plato's cave appears in the background...this gives you an image of a dead society...completely incarcerated.

hoo ka aalam hai giraftaron ki aabadi mein
ham to sunte the ke zanjeer e giran bolti hai!

hoo ka alam means pin drop silence, and zanjeer e giran means the heavy chain of bondage.

something new!

there are times when something comes back to one...almost as a revelation...the meaning of something dawns on one...as subtly as the flame of a newly lit candle grows in the darkness...this one had a similar effect on me...donno why? the theme ties up with different kinds of quests that echo within us...being articulated in different forms..

samandar ke safar mein, ek samandar hi nahin aata
bade naale, bade darya, bade taalab aate hain!

there is another one that probably explains or gives a mental scaffold to the one above...

aql main jo aa gaya, la inteha kyon kar hua
jo samajh mein aa gaya, phir woh khuda kyon kar hua!

like the immensity of the sea cannot be 'comprehended' by the human mind, but in the form of small water bodies, so is it that God cannot be 'comprehended' but only 'apprehended' in small measures...

and to top it all..Meer..on the same theme

kaash woh burqa moonh se hata de, warna phir kya haasil hai
aankh munde par unne jo deedar ko apne aam kiya!

mere meer!

phirta hai zindagi ke liyen aah! khwar kya
is wahem ki namood ka hai aitbaar kya

to be 'khwar' something is to waste your life and dignity in the pursuit of it...life is a 'wahem' it is an illusion or a misconception and there is no assurance of this labyrinth of falsehood turning into reality...it is therefore better to pursue more lasting truths than this.

some other shairs by another shayar for all:

hai yunhi ghoomte rehne main mazaa hi kuch aur
aisi lazzat na pahunchne mein, na reh jane mein..

mausamon ka koi mehram ho to usse poochcho
kitne patjarh abhi baaqi hain bahar aane mein

this one has a very 'feminine' background, although cryptic and then finally

naye deewanon ko dekho to khushi hoti hai
ham bhi aise hi the jab aaye the weerane mein

the explanations would follow...sooner on request!

dee zai ai ai errr...desire a la U2

consider two writers...one in 16th century England and the other in today's India...one the representative of the western canon and tradition...the other coming from a language as marginalized as Urdu...but the thought is comparable...Irfan Siddiqui says,

tujhko pa kar bhi teri hi talab seene mein rakhta hoon
tamasha kar! ke mein kashkol ganjine mein rakhta hoon!

incredible rendering of the hollowness of desire! Ganjina is a small kitchen cabinet of wire mesh and wood used to keep food items away from flies and insects. Ganjina, etymologically comes from the word Ganj which means treasure, it is the beauty of the language which gives the position of treasure to the food that we have daily. Kashkol is the black kansa, or the traditional begging bowl...you might have seen in the hands of the Faqeers of yore. To keep a Kashkol in a Ganjina is to be a Volpone, or L'Avare a la Moliere. reminds me of Donne's 'presence in absence'
"from (her) absence this good means i gain
that i can catch her
where none can match her
in some close corner of my brain
there, i embrace and kiss her
so i both enjoy and miss her!"

kuch ash'aar tasawwuf ke!

Love is not acquisition, love is not possession of the other, but a submission to the other. In love one has to lose the sense of self, muhabbat mein 'sar' (with all its implications of life, pride, sense of self etc) ka jaana zaroori hai! Agar muhabbat ke baad bhi sar ki fikr hai to woh muhabbat nahin 'mere desire' hai...baam e awwaleen is the first step into the dreary desert of love.
Qadam dasht e muhabbat mein na rakh meer
ke sar jaata hai baam e awwaleen par!

the constant desire for new objects, without satisfaction is the state of man today! there is a natural, essential need in man to love, not in the worldly sense, but to love the Absolute. When one forgets the Absolute, he/she is merely barking up trees, hitting his/her head against so many walls, yet being dissatisfied. All kinds of desire for flesh, wealth, property is only a symptom of the lack of love for the eternal, for God.

ya rab rah e talab mein koi kab talak phire
taskeen de ke baith rahoon paon gaad kar!

The problem lies in seeking for answers, for consummation, for reward in the only realm that we know of...but a true lover does not seek consummation (wisaal) in this world. This is a clever couplet by meer, it is only in death that one can meet the true beloved...na milne, aur hijr mein mar jaane mein hi asal milna hai.

naa milen, go ke hijr mein mar jayen
aashiqon ka wisaal hai kuch aur!

The world is a sea with exciting waves to surf upon, but the excitement is transient as the waves,' Mauj' is used as a pun here, Mauj also means having fun, as also a wave. The ocean of the world might look full, but even this is a mere mirage, a 'saraab'

kuchch nahin behr e jahan ki mauj par, mat bhool meer!
door se darya nazar aata hai, lekin hai saraab!

khuda rakkhe!

khuda rakkhe nasheb e ku e janaan
zamane bhar ka paani mar raha hai!

nasheb ka matlab hota hai slope, aur paani marne ka matlab hai..paani ka jam'aa hona.

the poet means to say that all the bloody suitors are queuing up in front of the beloved's locality. The bugger is being sarcastic.

Aur Suniye!

abhi tak Meer ki philosophical shairi suni hai...now listen to something aesthetically invigorating.

Roz o shab guzri hai pench o taab mein rehte tujhe
ai gul e sad chaak kis ki zulf ka tu shaana tha?!!

'Zulf' of the beloved and the 'Gul' have been brought together on one platform, ghazal readers would know that these belong to completely dissimilar paraphernalia.

pench o taab...is associated with the volume and length of the beloved's hair, the red rose with hundreds of cuts (petals) is an image of the deewana and therefore also a self image. The deewana is always lost (pench o taab mein hona) and in being bloody with many bruises and cuts on his body is comparable to the rose. But Pench o taab also connects the rose and the deewana to the shaana (shoulders) of the beloved, on which the beautiful hair cascade and fall....keeping the shaana in constant pench o taab, in a constant state of intoxication getting whiffs from the hair of the beloved.

kuch ash'aar meer ke!

meer ki baat kare kaafi din ho gaye..i'll try and explain some as i go along

ab ke himmat sarf kar, jo us se dil uchte mera
phir dua ai 'meer' mat kariyo agar aisa karoon!

this is an exceptional couplet that captures the split in the personality of the lover...the split between the rational and the emotional, the split between 'mythos' and 'logos'. kehte hain, if, by sheer exercise of control over my 'self', i happen to turn myself from 'her' (dil uchatna), please, for God's sake Meer, do not claim her back again through your prayers. One can really see the image of someone supplicating before himself, someone almost begging his own self, not to do something. It is in this begging, that the idea of helplessness in love is driven further home. The couplet seems to tear one apart. apne aap se majboor hone ki ek incredible image hai yeh shair.

Explanations on popular demand! ;)

saraapa aarzoo ham log, hain kaahe ko zindon mien
rahe hain ab talak jeete wale! dil maar maar apna

This shair is actually tragic in the sense that it talks about the insatiability of human desire. The poet highlights a paradox here and says...that if we are condemned to a life of an ever burning desire, our existence is also defined by a constant repression of what our heart desires (dil maarna!)...if this repression and a continual stifling of our desires is what life is then why should we be counted amongst the living...are we not part of the dead already? A strange relationship between death and human desire.
ghalib's shair --

hazaaron khwahishen aisi ke har khwahish pe dam nikle
bahut nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle

is comparable to this.

bahut din hue iqbal se kuch nahin suna....

leejiye ek aur post from Iqbal's poetry...

hope everybody likes it....jawaab e shikwa ki kuch lines

kyon ziyan kaar banoon, sood faramosh rahoon
fikr e farda na karoon, mehv e gham e dosh rahoon

ziyan kaar= one who incurs loss, sood faramosh= one who denies profit

na'ale bulbul ke sunoon aur hama tan gosh rahoon
ham nawa! main bhi koi gul hoon jo khamosh rahoon!

na'ala= painful, dolorous cries, hama tan gosh= to be all ears!, ham nava=friend

jurrat aamoz meri ta'ab e sukhan hai mujh ko
shikwa Allah se, khakam ba dahan, hai mujh ko!

jurrat aamoz=courage inducing, ta'ab e sukhan= ability to speak
khakam ba dahan= may my mouth be full of dust.

irfan siddiqui!

awwal awwal is se kuch harf o nawa karte the ham
rafta rafta raigan kaar e sukhan lagne laga

ham kahan ke yousuf e saani the lekin us ka haath
ek shab ham ko balaa e pairahan lagne laga

tere wehshee ne giraftari se bachne ke liyen
ram kiya itna ke aahu e khutan lagne laga

ham badhe ehl e khirad bante the yeh kya ho gaya
aql ka har faisla deewana pan lagne laga

this is a ghazal which gives you the reference to my nom de plume, ek aur shair irfan ka hi
is ko wazeh karne ke liyen

yeh mushk hai ke muhabbat mujhe nahin ma'aloom
mehek se mere hiran ke taraf se aati hai

'aahu' hiran ko kehte hain

punchline: kabhi to saari shikaston ka yoon sila mil jaye
hiran ki khoj mein nikloon shakuntala mil jaye
(i donno the poet..but its a good one)

platts dictionary online.

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/platts/

irfan siddiqui: marboot shairi ka namoona

marboot ash'aar ka ek example...jahan couplet ke alfaaz mein ek extra textual 'rabt' ya 'relation' paya jaata hai

lashkar e ishq ne jab se khaeme kiye, kuch na kuch roz sarhad badha lee gayi
aur phir ek din mere dil ki zameen, dard ki mumlikat mein mila li gayi

lashkar, khaeme, sarhad badhana, zameen ko mumlikat ya 'territory' mein milana come from one paraphernalia . yeh ek alag tarah ka lutf paida karta hai.

shuja khawar is my favorite...

hijr mein imkaan kitne, wasl bas ek waqaya
wusat-e-sehra mien kya deewar-o-dar ki sochna

hijr-longing, ke imkaanat ke bare mein kuch kehna, ek turrah e pur pech o kham ko chedne ke barabar hai. wasl-union, chahe jitne din ki ho, ek lamhe se zyada nahin lagti. Longing is truly as 'fruitful', and here is the 'dislocation of meaning' in language, as the expanse of the 'desert'. Deewar o dar, usually seen as places of refuge are seen as reductive, cramped and oppressive.

zindagi bhar zinda rehne ki yahi tarkeeb hai
us taraf jaana nahin hargiz, jidhar ki sochna

this one is somewhat in keeping with the idea of wasl in the first couplet, chiaro scuro effect of thought and action.

aur suniye...

aap idhar aaye...udhar deen aur imaan gaye
eid ka chand nazar aaya to ramzan gaye

Eid aur ramzaan ka 'use' dekhiye!

Eid ke jaate hi wapas aa gaye ramzan dekho
roze daron kuch na poochcho, bas khuda ki shaan dekho

Eid ke jaane, parting with the beloved, ko ramzan ke ane se compare kara hai!

A quart in a pint pot!

you cannot but discern...if you are a reader of english literature...something faustian about the simple lines of provincial poetry here...
pyase pyase naina uske, jaane pagli kya chahe
tat par jab bhi aaye chahe chchagli bhar loon gagar mein
these beautiful lines could also be hinting at the unquenchable desire for the objects of the material world...one of which is also knowledge.

here is a tour de force which can be compared to Milton's description of Eve, stretching out to reach for the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the whole idea of breaking out of the balanced composed symmetry of the contours of the body, an image of transgression...the same is rendered here in another way...more mundane and more real. Faustus and Eve at the same time in just two lines that is the power of Urdu verse.

aur bhi seena tan-tan jata, aur kamar bal kha jaati
chalte chalte paun phisalne lagte jab dhalyawan pe

one must note the image of pride, the image of ripeness, the image of breaking out of the natural corporal bounds, all in one...there is also the image of the fall..at least impending...the contortions of the natural body to keep apace with the newly acquired power...given here in the form of sexual ripeness. Knowledge truly is such a slippery path, ask the ones who go in the pursuit of it.

shuja khawar : another 'andaleeb' of this 'gulshan e na-aafreeda

shuja is one of the lesser known poets of the Delhi school alive today. One can see the temper of Delhi in his poetry.

masiha tujh ko kaisa lag raha hai!
hamen to zakhm achcha lag raha hai!

kahani mein kahin aaya nahin jo
wahi kirdar sachcha lag raha hai
(post modern in its critical approach to narratives...meta?)
aur suniye...

dekhiya ta'seer khali zeher mein hoti nahin
zindagi sookhi mila kar khaiyega zeher mien!

and here is a classic...with all that milton would have said in at least one book!

aag andar ho, to baahar khak ke lagte hain sab
lag gayi apni tabiyat ko bhi shaitani hawa!

a ghazal by meer taqi meer!

rang ud chala gulon ka chaman mein to kya naseem
ham ko to rozgar ne be baal o par kiya

nafeh jo thin mizaj ko awwal so ishq mein
aakhir unhin dawaon ne ham ko zarar kiya
(zarar: nuqsaan karna)

kya janoon bazm e aish ke saaqi ki chashm dekh
main suhbat e sharaab se aage safar kiya
(chashm: ankh)

jis dam ke tegh e ishq kinchi bul hawas kahan
sun lijiye ke hamne hi seena sipar kiya
(tegh: dagger, bul hawas: subjects of desire)

woh dasht e khauf naak raha hai mera watan
sun kar jise khizar ne safar se uzar kiya

(dasht: registan, desert, khizar: a travelling figure like Tiresias)

une autre compose par JAMI

here is another beautiful persian ghazal by Jamii..

yaar e man gar neem shab mast-e sharaab ayad beroun
zahid-e sad saala az masjid kharaab ayad beroun

subha dam tu rukh numayi, az namaaz-e man qazaa
sajda kin bashat rava, chun aaftab ayad beroun

baad e murdan laash e jami gar ba darya afgani
seena sozaan, dil tapaan, mahi ze aab ayad beroun

if my beloved were to arrive in her state of intoxication
an ascetic of a hundred years would come out of the mosque polluted

if you show your face in the morning, i would surely lose my morning prayers
for it is haraam to pray once the sun has shown itself

if you throw the body of ja'ami after his death in the sea
the heat of his heart would cause the fish to jump out of it!

something in persian...beautiful

She killed me with a sideways glance: Persian Ghazal

Mara ba ghamza kusht, o qaza ra bahana sakht

Khud suye ma na deed, o haya ra bahana sakht

Raftam ba masjidi ke babinam jamaal-e-dost

Dasti ba rukh kashid, o dua ra bahana sakht

Daste ba dosh-e ghair, nihade bar-e karam

Mara chun deed laghzish-e pa ra bahana sakht

Zahid na dasht tab-e-jamaal-e pari rukhan

Kunji girift o yad-e khuda ra bahana sakht

by Nizami Ganjavi: Persian Sufi poet, 1141-1209

Key Vocabulary:

Bahana: an excuse, a pretext

Sakht: he made

Zahid: an ascetic who takes on a life of poverty and isolates himself from human society, in order to concentrate on God through prayers, fasting and contemplation.

English Translation

She killed me with a sideways glance, “your fate”--is what she claimed

Never deigned to look at me face on, ‘I’m modest’--is what she claimed

To the mosque I dragged myself hoping for the beloved’s glimpse

Raising her hands to her face, “was praying”--is what she claimed.

Strolling about the town his hands entwined on my rival’s shoulders

Seeing me he sprang apart and “I was slipping”—is what he claimed.

The zahid has not the strength to bear the Beauty of the beloved’s face

Retiring to a corner with a rosary, “I’m praying”--is what he claims.

the ghazal has been sung by K.L. Saigal and is beautiful to hear....try and get it if you can

meer ke kuch asha'ar!

ham sarkashi mien muddaton masjid se bach bach kar chale
ab sajde hi mein guzre hai qad jo hua mehraab sa!

the best part about this shair is the term mehraab which implies the bent back of the old man as well as the architecture of the mosque....there is an internal connection between the words of the first line and the second, there is also a beautiful connection between the 'sarkashi' of youth and the submission of old age. The shair is tragic as it reiterates the finite nature of man. Mehraab by the way, is a word that means refuge from the glare of sunlight. Mehr--that is refuge, from 'aab' that is the glare.

saraapa aarzoo ham log hain kaahe ko zindon mein
rahe hain ab talak jeete, (wale!) dil maar maar apna

Wale! is actually an earlier form of Alas!
edited some thanks to my friends


this seems to be a very complicated shair from the psycho analytic point of view.

Iqbal's poetic legacy to the coming generations...

this is a relatively lesser known poem by Iqbal included in one of his later works...
boodhe baloch ki nasihat...

ho tere bayaban ki hawa tujh ko gawara
is dasht se behtar hai na dilli na bukhara

jis simt mein chahe sifat e sail e rawan chal
vadi yeh hamari hai yeh sehra bhi hamara

ghairat hai badi cheez jahan e tag o dau mien
pehnati hai darvesh ko taj e sar e dara

haasil kisi kamil se ye posheeda hunar kar
kehte hain ke sheeshe ko bana sakte hain khara

mehroom raha daulat e darya se wo ghawwas
karta nahin jo sohbat e saahil se kinara

duniya ko hai phir ma'arka e ruh o badan pesh
tehzeeb ne phir apne darindon ko ubhara

Allah ko pa mardi e mo'min pe bharosa
iblees ko Europe ki mashinon ka sahara

taqdeer e umam kya hai koi keh nahin sakta
mo'min ko farasat ho to ka'afi hai ishara

ikhlas e amal seekh naya kaan e kuhan se
shahan che ajab gar ba nawazand gada ra.

Yun Pukaren hain hamen kucha e janan wale...

i had been contemplating starting this blog for a long time. lekin shayad fursat nahin mili. I am an admirer of the poetry of Meer Taqi Meer and always had a feeling that the Urdu poets of India, not only of Delhi, but of India at large have not been understood and appreciated by the rest of the world in the manner that they should have been. If this had been the case Allama Iqbal would certainly have deserved a Nobel prize for literature. This is a humble attempt to open a space for all those who identify with the poet of the sher:

Yun pukaren hain hamen kucha e janan wale
idhar aa be, abe O!!, Chak gariban wale!!