Click here for background and on any passage for word meanings and explanatory discussion. josh malihabadi (1898-1982) was a fiery, revolutionary, secular, nationalist poet, whose poems of protest against orthodoxy, would not have been well received in pakistan. He was a personal friend of nehru, who tried hard to persuade him to stay in India, when in 1952, he decided to migrate. jagan nath azad wrote “tark-e vatan”, a poignant nazm, in which he presciently wrote “vahaaN ki bhi fiza tujh ko na raas aaii to kya hoga”.
1
vo dil macha raha tha, dhoomeN jo bahr-o-bar¹ meN
ab Khaak uR rahi hai, yaaro usi nagar meN    1.land and sea
The heart which was celebrating over land and water (the whole domain), now dust blows over that region my friends.
2
Ghurbat¹ ki vaadiyauN² ne diivaar o dar³ diye haiN
diivaar o dar bhi kaise, diivaar meN na dar meN    1.exile 2.valleys 3.door
“diivaar o dar” is an expression used to mean ‘home’. Also ‘diivaar’ singifies ‘shelter, shade, protection’ and ‘dar-door’ signifies freedom. The valleys in exile have given me a home, but what kind of doors and walls … walls that offer no shelter and doors that offer no freedom i.e., the promises of a home, shelter and freedom turned out to be false.
3
nikle the jo divaane taj¹ kar dayaar² apna
un meN se phir palaT kar, aaya na koii ghar meN    1.give up, quit 2.home
Among the fools who leave their home, there is not one who ever comes back.
4
kal jin pe waz’a-daari¹ Daale hue thi parde
ab un tabaahiyoN ke charche haiN shahr bhar meN    1.cultural norms
Until yesterday, cultural norms kept them hidden behind a veil, but today all my devastation is the talk of the town.
5
Ghurbat¹ meN eid ka jab, sar par hilaal² chamka
Kham³ aa gaya kamaaN ka TooTi hui kamar meN    1.exile 2.new moon
“eid ka chaand”, the new moon heralding eid is supposed to bring joy and good luck. But when the eid ka chaand shone on the poet in exile, his broken back bowed/bent down in a curve like a bow similar to the curvature of the new moon. Broken back is symbol of helplessness and bent back is a symbol of age and weakness.
6
kaaNToN ke raastoN meN ab vo base hue haiN
Khaime¹ the nasb² jin ke phooloN ki rah-guzar³ meN    1.tents 2.installed, erected 3.pathway
They, whose tents were once erected in fields of flowers, now live by thorny by-ways.
7
mafqood¹ ho chuka hai mafhuum² hi hazar³ ka
aye be-kasi⁴ raheN ge ab umr bhar safar meN     1.disappeared 2.meaning 3.home 4.helplessness
Now the very meaning of being home has diappeared. O, helplessness, now I will live the rest of my days as if traveling away from home.
8
gum-karda¹-e vatan huN, aye chaandni bata de
ye kaun rah raha hai baiTha hua qamar² meN    1.lost 2.moon
I have lost my homeland, O, moonlight tell me, who is it that sits in the moon … is he another homeless person like me.
9
uff ye kaRi shu’aaeN¹ is farq²-e be-kulah³ par
uff ye taveel⁴ raateN, is umr-e muKhtasir⁵ meN    1.rays 2.forehead, head 3.without cap, bare 4.long 5.short
Oh, these burning rays of sunlight on my bare head. Oh, these long nights of this short life i.e. he has no comfort day or night.
10
koo¹-e butaaN² ko taj³ kar, dasht⁴-e haram⁵ meN aaya
aaKhir sama⁶ gaya tha aye josh kya yeh sar meN   1.street 2.idols, beloved 3.quit, leave 4.wilderness 5.mosque 6.filled, entered
Leaving the street of idols, you came into the wilderness of mosques. Whatever came over you, O, josh.