Click here for background and on any passage for word meanings and explanatory discussion. om krishn raahat (1925-xxxx) jalandhar and fareedabad. Learnt urdu in school and college. Retired from government service in 1984. His father was a close friend of aKhtar shiiraani which inspired him to compose verse. In an introduction to his book, he declares himself irreligious, non-believing and left-leaning. He has several collections of Ghazal and nazm to his credit, along with short stories.
1
ghabra¹ ke Gham se hum ne jo saaGhar² uTha liya
duniya ne aasmaan ko sar par³ uTha liya    1.fearful, apprehensive 2.cup of wine 3.sar par uThaana – to make a fuss, raise cain
Apprehensive of sorrow, we picked up a cup of wine and the world raised cain. This is a complaint about social strictures against drinking wine/alcohol.
2
yuN to azal¹ se husn² saraapa³ Ghuroor⁴ hai
hum aashiqoN ne aur bhi sar par⁵ uTha liya    1.beginning of time, eternity 2.beauty, beloved 3.head to toe, personification 4.pride, conceit 5.sar par uThaana used here as sar par biThaana, to give even more attention
Here ‘aashiq’ is perhaps used to imply shaa’er – poets. Beauty/beloved has been conceited about her beauty from the beginning of time. But we (poets) have given it even more attention. Perhaps this is a reflection of the call of the Progressive Writers’ Association to move away from writing romantic themes towards social justice themes.
3
kahta hai kaun qais¹ ka saani² nahiN koi
dekha mujhe to tifl³ ne patthar uTha liya    1.another name of majnuN, the mad lover 2.duplicate, successor 3.young boy
The classic picture of a lover is that he goes about town with his clothes torn behaving like a mad man. Street urchins gather and throw rocks at him. Thus, who says that there has not been another lover like majnuN. When the young boy saw me, he picked up a rock. The implication is that he was going to be subjected to rock throwing because he (the poet) looked/behaved like majnuN and was his successor.
4
aadam¹ ki sarkashi² se na yazdaaN³ nipaT⁴ saka
bebas⁵ hua to fitna⁶-e mahshar⁷ uTha liya    1.Adam (as in Adam and Eve) 2.rebellion 3.god 4.deal with 5.helpless 6.cause tumult 7.gathering on the day of judgement
The story is that Adam and Eve lived in heaven and were told not to eat the forbidden fruit. Adam disobeyed/rebelled, ate it and was expelled to earth. Because of that first sin there is this whole story of the day of judgement and reward and punishment. Thus, god could not deal with Adam’s rebelliousness, so he caused this tumult and gathering of the day of judgement. An admiration for defiance is implied.
5
kar leta zindagi se yaqeenan¹ maiN do-do-haath²
us ki madad³ peh maut ne Khanjar uTha liya    1.certainly 2.an expression meaning pick a fight, struggle 3.help
I would certainly have confronted Life with all my might and won, except that Death came to its help with knife drawn at me.
6
pahuNchi¹ hai Thes² jab bhi dil-e pur-Ghuroor³ ko
sajde⁴ se maiN ne apna jhuka⁵ sar uTha liya 1.reached, materialized, happened 2.pain, grief, insult 3.proud, self-respecting 4.ritual prostration 5.bowed
The implication is that something happened to insult the self-respecting poet. This insult was caused by god (or the powerful) before whom he was bowed down in obeisance/defernce. But when the poet felt this insult, his self-respect made him get up from his deference; it made him rebel. Reminds me of Ghalib …
bandagi meN bhi voh aazaada o Khud-biiN haiN keh ham
ulTe phir aaye dar-e k’aaba agar vaa na hua
7
roz-e azal¹ vadii’at²-e yazdaaN³ Khushi bhi thi
raahat⁴ ne Gham ko haath baRha kar uTha liya    1.day of creation (beginning of time) 2.gifts, blessings 3.god 4.pen-name of the poet
On the day of creation, happiness was also on offer as a gift of god, but raahat stretched his hand and picked up sorrow. The implication is that pain/sorrow is more desirable than happiness.