Click here for background and on any passage for word meanings and explanatory discussion. jamna parshad raahi (1940-2017), aligaRh. Sahitya Akademi, UP, awardee. President, Progressive Writers’ Association. He specialized in composing in the style of Ghalib and traced his literary lineage to daaGh dehlavi, though not a shaagird of Ghalib, was deeply influenced by him.
1
Khud sarf¹-e eteraaf² huN teri janaab³ meN
taaqeer⁴ kyuN hai daavar⁵-e mahshar⁶ hisaab⁷ meN    1.spending, busy 2.confession 3.grandeur 4.delay 5.lord 6.doomsday 7.reckoning
The poet/lover/sinner is busy readily confessing his transgressions in the grand presence of god (the lord of the day of judgement). But there is a delay in his reckoning and passing of judgement. He wonders why and leaves us to guess. Could it be because he has some redeeming qualities and they are being considered?
2
niyyat¹ pe bhi nigaah² rahe ehtesaab³ meN
yak-moo⁴ ka faasla⁵ hai gunaah⁶ o savaab⁷ meN    1.intention 2.sight, glance 3.reckoning, accounting 4.one hair 5.distance 6.transgression, vice 7.virtue
He appeals to god – take a look at my intentions also when an accounting is made of my deeds. The distance between vice and virtue is no more than a hair. My intentions were right, I might have just overstepped that fine line without intending to. Perhaps, god is indeed looking at this and that is why there is some delay in pronouncing judgement (see the previous she’r).
3
hai dast-ras¹ meN baag² to paa³ hai rikaab⁴ meN
laikin hai raKhsh⁵-e umr-e-ravaaN⁶ pech-o-taab⁷ meN    1.within reach of hands 2.reins 3.feet 4.stirrups 5.horse, steed 6.flowing/passing life 7.hesitation, back and forth
Says Ghalib …
rau meN hai raKhsh-e umr kahaaN dekhiye thame
ne haath baag par hai na paa hai rikaab meN
raahi makes the same point from a different angle. He has hold of the reins and his feet are firmly in the stirrups, but the steed of life itself hesitates, doesn’t know where to go.
4
jur’at¹ kahaaN hai dast² o qalam³ ko bina⁴-e shauq
maqdoor⁵ ho to Khat bhi na likkhuN javaab meN    1.courage 2.hand 3.pen 4.basis, foundation 5.capacity, ability
The poet sent a message to the beloved and has received a response that seems to be a rejection. His hand and pen do not have the courage to lay the foundation of love i.e. do not have the courage to write a letter to the beloved again, declaring his undying love. Even as he says this, he seems to be asserting his dignity – I would not have written to you in response, if I had any control over myself. As it is, I am helpless, because I am deeply in love. Thus, in typical Ghalib fashion, he begs and asserts his dignity at the same time.
5
khilte hi gul¹ pe shab² ke pasiine ki hai ramaq³
kya maahtaab⁴ jazb⁵ hua aaftaab⁶ meN    1.rose 2.night 3.last breath, death 4.full moon 5.absorbed 6.sun
‘shab ka pasiina’ is dew drops. The two misra/lines show parallelism of imagery – as soon as the rose blooms (at dawn), the dew collected during the night disappears, just like the moon disappears (gets absorbed) when the sun becomes bright.
6
ye beKhudi¹ ki kaun si manzil² hai kuchh bata
aalam³ tamaam⁴ qaid⁵ hai mauj⁶-e sharaab meN    1.trance, forgetting oneself 2.stage 3.world 4.whole 5.captive 6.wave
This could be a reference to sufiyaana/mystical thought. The poet/mystic has had a good helping of the ‘wine of love’ and is in a trance. It appears to him that the whole world is submerged under a wave of wine. He wonders what stage inebriation/ecstacy/trance this might be.
7
aaya hai mera naam bhi shiisha-shikan¹ ke saath
yaa’ni hai zikr²-e aaiina patthar ke baab³ meN    1.one who shatters glass/mirrors 2.mention 3.theme, chapter
There is someone who is shattering/breaking glass. If ‘shiisha’ is taken to be a bottle, then the ‘shiisha-shikan’ could be the preacher or the religious police who is breaking bottles of wine. If ‘shiisha’ is taken to mean glass i.e. glass house, it could be the critic who is throwing rocks at the glass house and shattering it. In either case (for some reason not revealed) the name of the poet appears alongside that of the ‘shiisha-shikan’. The poet considers himself to be delicate/fragile mirror/glass and the ‘shiisha-shikan’ to be the stone/rock. Thus he observes that the story of the glass appears in the chapter of the story of rock. The implication is that this causes him to be uncomfortable.
8
idraak¹ ahl-e-hosh² ko diivaanagi³ ka tha
aaKhir Khudi⁴ ko bhool gaye ijtenaab⁵ meN    1.knowledge, awareness 2.people of wisdom/rationality 3.madness, forgetting the self 4.self-identity, spiritual self 5.abstinence, avoidance
This she’r too appears to have sufiyaana/mystical implications. In sufiyaana thought forgetting oneself and becoming one with the divine is that which you real identity. Anything else is false or superficial. Thus, rational people were completely aware of this, were knowledgable about it. But they abstained from ‘diivaanagi’. As a result they did not achieve the “real Khudi” that derives from it.
9
ek baani¹-e kitaab hai ek naqsh²-e mohtaram³
hairaaN⁴ huN kis ka naam likhuN intesaab⁵ meN    1.maker, author 2.mark, print 3.respected 4.puzzled 5.dedication, acknowledgement
Here ‘naqsh-e-mohtaram’ is the respected foot-print of Ghalib, that shows the pathway, inspires the poet. ‘baani-e-kitaab’, the author/writer of this book of course is the poet. He is puzzled who to acknowledge as the author, who to dedicate the book to … Ghalib, who inspires or himself, who writes.