Click here for background and on any passage for word meanings and explanatory discussion. mirza asadullah KhaaN Ghalib (1797-1869). I dare not write any introduction. On more than one occasion Ghalib has warned his readers that he needs no introduction or even address. I humbly comply. ash’aar from this Ghazal have been used frequently by many shu’ara (especially see jagannaath aazad and daaGh dehlavi) who have composed tributes to Ghalib. Also see daaGh in the same bahr (I consider this as a tribute to Ghalib). badri raina, retired professor of English, dehli University, poet, writer, columnist has translated several Ghalib Ghazal and published them as a book.
1
ye na thi hamaari qismat ki visaal¹-e yaar² hota
agar aur jiite rahte yahi intezaar³ hota   1.union, meeting 2.beloved 3.waiting, anticipation, restlessness
Union with the beloved was not in my fate. Had I lived longer (the poet is writing this about himself after his death!), the waiting would have been just as intense and/or just as long.
2
tere v’aade¹ par jiye ham to ye jaan jhuuT jaana
ke Khushi se mar na jaate agar e’tebaar² hota     1.promise 2.trust
The poet/lover has been so despondent at not being able to be with the beloved that everyone thought he would die. But he did not. So, they think that he lives because she has promised union with him. The beloved also thinks so. The poet/lover cautions her. Do not for a moment believe that I live because of your promise. Would I not have died (of joy) had I trusted/believed you. Thus, the fact that I am alive shows that you are untrustworthy.
3
teri naazuki¹ se jaana ke bandha tha ahd² boda³
kabhi tu na toR sakta agar ustuvaar⁴ hota     1.delicate nature/body 2.promise 3.weak 4.strong
To this day, there is a perception that people of refined culture are not supposed to speak bluntly. Thus, the beloved too because of her refined/delicate nature speaks in ambiguities, making couched promises. The poet/lover knows this. She would not have been able to break her promise had it been unambiguous. Thus, the fact that she breaks promises, proves her refined/delicate nature.
4
koi mere dil se puchhe tere tiir¹-e niim-kash² ko
ye Khalish³ kahaaN se hoti jo jigar ke paar hota     1.arrow 2.half-drawn 3.burning/pricking pain, anticipation, restlessness
The beloved’s glances are like arrows. A half-drawn arrow is a side-long glance, not a direct stare. Because it was a half drawn arrow it did not pass all the way through his heart and is therefore all the more painful, and does not kill him right away. He remains alive and restless.
5
ye kahaaN ki dosti hai ke bane haiN dost naaseh¹
koi chaarasaaz² hota koi Gham-gusaar³ hota     1.moralizer, advisor 2.healer, helper 3.sympathizer
What kind of friendship is this that friends have become moralizers (is it that they are telling him to give up wine, or are they advising him to write simpler verse). Equally, it could mean moralizers have become friends. In either case, they are giving him unwanted advice. How much better would it have been if they had been helpers and sympathizers instead.
6
rag-e-saNg¹ se Tapakta vo lahu² ke phir na thamta
jise Gham samajh rahe ho ye agar sharaar³ hota     1.vein of rocks (rocks are supposed to have veins) 2.blood 3.spark
If you strike rocks together, you get a spark. But this is momentary and passes instantaneously. The poet/lover’s pain, on the other hand, is intense and abiding. That which you know as (my) pain, had it been a spark (if a rock had experienced what I experience), then such/so much blood would flow from the veins of stone that it would never stop.
7
Gham agarche¹ jaaN-gusil² hai pa³ kahaaN bacheN ke dil hai
Gham-e ishq gar na hota Gham-e rozgaar⁴ hota     1.even though 2.life-sapping 3.but 4.earning a livelihood
Even though pain/sorrow is life-sapping, how can you escape it. After all this is a heart and heart naturally requires pain/sorrow/desire. If it does not have the pain of love/passion, then it would have the pain of earning a livelihood (material goods). Since there is no escape, you might as well have the better kind of pain i.e. the pain of love. The implication is that the two kinds of pain are not only superior/inferior but also incompatible, it is one or the other, not both.
8
kahuN kis se maiN ke kya hai shab-e-Gham¹ buri balaa² hai
mujhe kya bura tha marna agar ek baar hota     1.night of pain (of separation) 2.affliction, calamity
How can I describe to anyone else (they will have to feel it for themselves), the pain of the night of separation is a bad affliction. How bad would death have been, if it had been occurred only once. Thus the poet/lover experiences the pain of death all night long every night instead of the conventional death which can happen only once.
9
hue mar ke ham jo rusva¹ hue kyuN na Gharq²-e dariya³
na kabhi janaaza⁴ uThtaa na kahiN mazaar⁵ hota     1.disgraced, dishonoured 2.drowned, immersed 3.sea 4.funeral bier 5.grave, tomb
The reason why the poet/lover has come to disrepute after death is not specifically stated. It is likely that the reason of his death has become known i.e. the name of the beloved has become known and maligned. His regret … oh, why did I not drown. If I had been, then there would not have been a funeral bier and no tomb, people would not have been reminded of my death and the miligning of the beloved’s name.
10
use kaun dekh sakta ke yagaana¹ hai vo yaktaa²
jo dui³ ki buu bhi hoti to kahiN do-chaar⁴ hota   1.alone, without example 2.unique, one of a kind 3.duality 4.two (eyes) becoming four, looking eye to eye at someone
This is about god. Who can see the one that is one and unique. Even if he/she had any trace (fragrance) of duality, then we would have been able to see him/her squarely in eye. I will leave it at that. It is beyond a down to earth rationalist to indulge in a discussion.
11
ye masaa’el¹-e tasavvuf² ye tera bayaan³ Ghaalib
tujhe ham vali⁴ samajhte jo na baada-Khwaar⁵ hota     1.puzzles, mysteries 2.mysticism, sufism 3.oration, description, verse 4.saint 5.wine drinker
These mysteries of mysticism and your brilliant oration/exposition, O Ghalib. We would have thought of you as a saint, had you not been a wine drinker. Ghalib, praising his own prowess of versification. Also … zikr us parivash ka, aur phir bayaan apna
ban gaya raqeeb aaKhir, tha jo raazdaaN apna

1
Consummation was not to be the crowning of my fate;
A lifetime more would find me still ‘mid reveries uncreate.
2
Forget that I have lived so long by the promises received;
I should have died of ecstasy had I been undeceived
4
The satiety of your arrow’s dart my heart can best explain;
Had the steel not held, but cut through clean, would poorly entertain
5
That friends should all turn counsellors what pious mockery!
Instead of risking discomfort in helpful sympathy.
6
Should you but inject into stone grief and agony
In lieu of sparks, streaks of blood would drip unceasingly.
7
So long as the heart is what it is, suffering must endure
If not the tribulations of love, of survival, for sure.
8
Who is there will understand the knell that sundown rings?
Death were welcome, but not indeed, all through the evening.
9
Should slander be my destiny, I wish I would rather drown
Than have some graveyard advertise my ignominous renown
11
Such metaphysics, such argument, such peerless eloquence;
I were a propher had not sweet wine befuddled my better sense