to mark a century of visitors on my blog!

there is an interesting nazm by iqbal that i dedicate to my readers today...
it is called Ahd e tifli...which means the period of infancy..

the dayar e nau, Zameen o aasman mere liyen
wus'at e aaghosh e maadar, ik jahan mere liyen

thi har ek jumbish nishan e lutf e jaan mere liyen
harf e be matlab thi khud meri zaban mere liyen

daur e tifli mein agar koi rulata tha mujhe
shorish e zanjeer e dar mein, lutf aata tha mujhe

takte rehna hai, woh pehron talak, sooe qamar
woh phate baadal mein, be aawaz e pa us ka safar

poochna, reh reh ke, us ke koh o sehra ki khabar
aur woh hairat "darogh e maslehat aamez" par

aankh waqf e deed thi, lab maa'il e guftaar tha
dil na tha mera, saraapa zauq e istafsaar tha

some of the best lines in the above poem are the ones that bring back the image of the infants actions to the reader's mind. There is the image of the child looking blankly at the moon...the moon that travels through the torn clouds...koh o sehra are the rocks and the deserts over which the moon travels...darogh is the word for a lie...darogh e maslehat aamez is a strategic lie.
it is in quotation marks being a quotation from Sa'adi.

darogh e maslehat aamez
behtar ast
az raast i fitna angez

a strategic lie is better than a scandalous truth.

istifsaar,istafsaar is to explain ...zauq e istafsaar means the desire to explain itself..which defines the existence of the infant.

kuch naye ash'aar !

The so-called poets of today can try and emulate the simplicity of Meer's style of poetry where so much is said without using many words...

Kal chaman mien Gul o Saman dekha
aaj dekha...to baagh, 'ban' dekha!

'ban' is the hindvi word for forest, or wilderness.

Zauq e paikan o teer mein tere
muddaton tak jigar ne chchan dekha

from another ghazal...

is mauj khez behr mein ham ko qaza ne aah!
paani ke bulbule ki tarah se mita diya

sab shor e ma o man ko liye dil mien mar gaye
yaaron ko is fasane ne aakhir sula diya

the above shair is talking about the 'constitution of the self'...'ma' mean me and 'man' means I. Meer talks about the 'I' as a mere narrative, a 'fasana' that eventually puts the 'listeners' to sleep.

and then...in the special dehlavi style

dil na tha aisi jagah jis ki na sudh leeje kabhoo
ujdi is basti ko phir tu ne basaya hota

dil se khush tarha makaan phir bhi kabhi bante hain?!!
is imaarat ko to tuk dekh ke dhaya hota!