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Saturday, October 18, 2008

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

poochte hain woh ke ghalib kauh hai...

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Senior assistant professor at Zakir Husain Delhi College (Eve.) of the Delhi University

Saturday, October 18, 2008

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