Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib Translated by Anisur Rahman

Asadullah Khan Ghalib (1797-1869), hailed from the central Asian family of Aibuk Turks. His grandfather had migrated to India during the reign of Shah Alam II and joined army which his sons also did after him. After his father was killed in an action in Alwar, Ghalib lived a life of deprivations. Grants in appreciation from the last Mughal emperor and the Nawab of Rampur kept him going somehow. He also earned three coveted titles from Bahadur Shah Zafar. Although he was not so well appreciated during his lifetime, he has remained a canonical figure through ages as an accomplished poet and a prose writer, an epistolarian and a diarist, a lexicographer and a polemist, a critic and a historian, and above all, an arbiter of taste. He enriched the literary traditions of Urdu and Persian with his individual improvisations in diction and technique. Ghalib’s wit remains unparalleled, his diction refreshingly original, and his playfulness reminds one of the English Metaphysical poets, especially John Donne. Born in Agra, Ghalib lived all his life in Delhi where he died and was buried in the vicinity of the famous Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin’s mausoleum.

 

Anisur Rahman is a literary critic, translator, and a poet. Formerly a Professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, a Central University in New Delhi, he is currently Senior Advisor at Rekhta Foundation, the world’s largest website on Urdu language, literature, and culture <www.rekhta.org>. He has worked and published in the areas of comparative, translation, postcolonial, and Urdu studies. He has to his credit four books authored by him, six edited/co-edited volumes, and two collections of Urdu poetry in English translation. His most recent publications include Earthenware: Sixty Poems (Rubric Publishing, 2018), In Translation: Positions and Paradigms (Orient Blackswan, 2019), Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi: The Wonderful World of Urdu Ghazals (HarperCollins, 2019) and Socioliterary Cultures in South Asia (Niyogi Books, 2019). His comprehensive collection of Urdu Poetry in English translation entitled A Garden of All Senses: Five Centuries of Best Urdu Poetry (Speaking Tiger) is due for publication in early 2021. Rahman has been a Shastri Fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada (2001-2002) and a Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, USA (2007).

 

.
1

Ishq se tabeeyat ne zeest ka maza paayaa
Dard ki dawaa paayi dard-e be-dawaa paayaa

Love brought me the joys of life for sure
A cure for pain, a pain of no cure

 

2

Hazaaron khwahishein aisi ke har khwahish pe dam nikley
Bahut nikley merey armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle

Desires in thousands I had, for each I would die
With many I had luck, for many I would sigh

 

3

Dil-e nadaan tujhe hua kya hai
Akhir is dard ki dawaa kya hai

My naive heart, what ails you, what?
What’s the cure for this ache, what?

4

Aah ko chaahiye ek ‘umr asar hotey tak
kaun jeeta hai teri zulf ke sar hotey tak

My wails need a lifetime to reach the heart, wait, O wait
But who lives that long enough to see it reach, wait, O wait

 

5

Bazeecha-i-atfaal hai duniya merey aagey
hota hai shab-o-roze tamaashaa merey aagey

The world’s merely a children’s playground; I must say
I can see the play go on — night and day

6

Bas ke dushwaar hai har kaam ka aasaan honaa
Aadmi ko bhi mayassar naheen insaan hona

It’s hard to make it easy; beyond man’s acumen
As for a man to be a human

 

7

Poochhatey hain wok e Ghalib kaun hai
Koyi batlaao ke hum batlaaein kya

They ask Ghalib — Ghalib who?
Let someone say, I have no clue

8

Thha zindagi mein marg ka khtkaa lagaa hua
Udney se peshtar bhi mera rung zard thha

All my life, I feared the impending death
I was brown even before my last breath

9

Jaan dee dee hui usee ki thhee
Haq to yeh ke haq adaa na huaa

I gave up life, this life was a gift, it’s true
I could not pay indeed what all was due

 

10

Dost ghamkhwari mein meri sa’ee farmaaeingey kya
Zakhm ke bharney talak nakhun na badh jaaeingey kya

What can my friends do to soothe me in pain
Wouldn’t my nails grow to get a wound again

 

11

Ishart-e-qatra hai dariya mein fana ho jaanaa
Dard ka hud se guzarna hai dawa ho jaanaa

The drop’s luxury is to join the ocean
When pain exceeds, pain becomes a potion

12

Dhhaanpaa kafan ne daagh-e-uyoob-e barahnagee
Warna main har libaas mein nag-e wujood thha

My coffin covered me from anyone’s seeing
But I was ever naked in my very being

*****