Click here for background and on any passage for word meanings and explanatory discussion. munshi channulal dilgir (1780-1848), a hindu from lucknow, wrote this nauha, which has become a regular feature on ‘shaam-e GharibaaN’ – the evening after the battle of karbala, as the family faces the full enormity of its loss. I found a reference to channulal dilgir in a book “The Making of Awadh Culture”, by Madhu Trivedi in which he is credited with writing over 500 marsiya. The reference to this goes to an article in the Gazetteer dated 1877.
1
ghabraaye gi zainab
bhaiyya tumheN ghar ja ke kahaaN paaye gi zainab
ghabraaye gi zainab    zainab will be agitated and lost
O, brother, where will she find you when she gets home
zainab will be agitated and lost
2
kaisa ye bhara ghar hua barbaad ilaahi
kya aai tabaahi
ab is ko na aabad kabhi paaye gi zainab
ghabraaye gi zainab    O, god, how this once bustling house stands empty
visited by destruction
zainab will never find it prospersous again
zainab will be agitated and lost

3
ghar ja ke kise dekhe gi qaasim haiN na abbas
akbar se bhi hai yaas
apne ali asGhar ko kahaaN paaye gi zainab
ghabraaye gi zainab    who can she greet when she gets home, neither qaasim nor abbas
she pines for akbar too
where will zainab find her little ali asGhar
zainab will be agitated and lost
4
poochheN ge jo sab log ke bazu pe hua kya
ye neel hai kaisa?
kis kis ko nishaaN rassi ke dikhlaye gi zainab
ghabraaye gi zainab    when people ask, “what happened to your arms,
what is this blue mark”
how will zainab show the bruises of tight ropes
zainab will be agitated and lost
5
phaT jaaye ga bas dekhte hi ghar ko kaleja
yaad aao ge bhaiyya
dil DhoonDe ga tum ko to kahaaN paaye gi zainab
ghabraaye gi zainab her heart will break as soon as she get home
she will remember you
not finding you at home, where will zainab go looking
zainab will be agitated and lost
6
be parda hui qaid bhi Khwaahar ne uThaai
aur maut na aai
kya jaaniye kya kya abhi dukh paaye gi zainab
ghabraaye gi zainab  put on public display, humiliated and imprisoned
but still living
who knows how much more zainab has to bear
zainab will be agitated and lost