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!