Click here for background and on any passage for word meanings and explanatory discussion. shahed (1944-living) pays tribute to anand mohan gulzar dehlavi (1926-2020) upon his death (June 12, 2020). gulzar was a great lover of urdu, a scholar of faarsi and arabi, a poet par-excellence, committed humanist and secularist with a loving acceptance of all faith traditions.
1
urdu adab¹ ka chaand jo gahna² gaya hai aaj
she’r o suKhan³ pe ranj⁴ ka Dera⁵ laga hai aaj    1.literature 2.eclipsed 3.word, verse 4.sorrow 5.tent, canopy
The moon of urdu literature is eclipsed today. There is a canopy of sorrow over urdu shaa’eri today.
2
gulzar¹-e suKhan² par hai KhizaaN³ ki aamad⁴
gulchiN⁵ gul⁶-e gulzar¹ ko yuN chun⁷ chala hai aaj 1.garden 2.verse 3.fall, autumn 4.arrival 5.flower picker 6.rose 7.picked
Autumn (dry season, pat jhaR) has come to the garden of verse. The flower picker has picked the rose of the garden and made off today.
3
kashmiriyyat¹ ki rooh² tha gaNg-o-jaman³ ka naaz⁴
afsos⁵ saath us ke vo sulook⁶ bhi jaata raha hai aaj   1.the composite culture of kashmir 2.spirit 3.gaNga and jamna, their mingling is symbolic of the composite culture of India 4.pride 5.alas 6.cultured behaviour
He was the spirit of the kashmiri acceptance, the pride of India’s composite culture. Alas, that cultured behavious is also going away with him today.
4
saryu¹ meN dho’eN us ko ke ho Ghusl-e-janaaza²
Kharaabe³ se baabari⁴ ke taRap kar uTha hai aaj    1.river flowing past ayodhya 2.ritual funeral washing 3.ruins 4.baabari masjid
Whether you wash him in the saryu or give him a ritual funeral wash, he rises in pain from the ruins of the baabari masjid today. He wrote a very poignant and angry nazm when the baabari masjid was demolished (posted on urdushahkar).
5
jab koii zulm¹ hota, taRapta tha us ka dil
dereena² jo Khuloos³ tha, taRpa raha hai aaj     1.atrocity 2.past 3.cultured behaviour
Whenever there was atrocity, he was pained. It hurst that that past culture is missing today.
6
antim¹ kriya² ke b’aad jo thi ek musht³-e Khaak⁴
k’aaba tavaaf⁵ kar ke visarjaan⁶ hua hai aaj 1.last 2.rites 3.fistful 4.dust, ashes 5.circumambulate 6.consigned to the river
After the last rights (burning of the body), the fistful of ashes that remain, will be sent around the k’aaba before consignment to the river. This is a reflection of his strong values of honouring all faiths. He is known to have recited the az’aan in a rural masjid once.
7
qur’aaN ka paaTh¹ ya ke ho geeta ki tilaavat²
ek hi saaNs meN karta tha, vo chup ho gaya hai aaj    1.ritual recitation (usually of the geeta or the ramayan) 2.ritual recitation (usually of the qur’aan)
Whether it be the recitation of the qur’aan or the geeta, he would do it in the same breath. He has gone silent today.
8
karbal katha¹, madah²-e ali, raam bhakti³ ya n’aat⁴-e mohammadi
nanak ke bol, krishn bhajan, us ke qalam⁵ ka sabhi kuchh likha hai aaj 1.the story of karbala, i.e. the martyrdom of husain 2.praise 3.devotional song 4.poem in praise of 5.pen
He wrote nazm commemorating the martyrdom of husain (posted on urdushahkar), in praise of ali, devotional songs to raam and krishn as well as mohammed (https://urdushahkar.org/gulzar-e-hijaz-anand-mohan-gulzar-dehlavi/). He wrote in praise of nanak. It is all available, written by his pen.
9
huN daaGh¹ ka nabeesa², jo haiN zaar³ mere jadd⁴
swaagat⁵ meN un ke saath khaRi reKhta⁶ hai aaj     1.urdu poet and ustaad/teacher-mentor of gulzar’s father 2.grandson 3.pen name of gulzar’s father and recognized poet of his time 4.forebear 5.welcome 6.early name of urdu
gulzar claimed to be the grandson (in the sense of poetic literature) of daaGh, because his father was a shaagird. urdu language stands together with daaGh and zaar to welcome him to the spiritual world.
10
Ghalib ki zabaaN kaaTne vaaloN pe jo bheji thi us ne l’aan¹
shahed usi ki shaan² meN naGhma-saraa³ hai aaj     1.curse 2.praise 3.writing verse of praise
He pronounced a curse on those who cut off Ghalib’s tongue … this has reference to a fiery nazm gulzar wrote in observance of Ghalib centennial in 1969 (https://urdushahkar.org/jashn-e-ghalib-anand-mohan-gulzar-dehlavi/) … Ghalib’s tongue is also meant to interpreted as Ghalib’s language, urdu. Thus, those who were celebrating Ghalib’s centennial has also suppressed urdu language. shahed is reciting nazm in praise of him who did this.