Date: Sat, 12 Oct 96 11:22:00 PDT
From: Ramesh Hariharan (rameshh@tp.ac.sg)
Subject: Parveen Shaakir! woh to khushboo hai...

Hi
Many of you have heard of Parveen Shaakir from Pakistan, a poetess of
repute. I present to you, one of her famous ghazals.

1. woh to khushboo hai, hawaoN meiN bhikar jaayega
masla phool ka hai, phool khidhar jaayega

[He is a fragrance, and will get spread/permeated in the air
The problem is for the flower, where will it go]

2. hum to samjhethe ke ek zakm hai, bhar jaayega
kya khabar thi ke rag-e-jaaN meiN utar jaayega

[I thought that it is only a wound, and will heal
How could I have known that it will get into my veins/being]

3. woh hawaaoN ki tarah khaana-bhajja phirtha hai
ek jhaoNkha hai jo aayega, guzar jaayega

[Like the air, he keeps roaming from house to house
He is a gust(of wind), who will come, and will pass by]

4. woh jab aayega tho phir uski rifaaqat ke liye
mausam-e-gul mere aangan mein teher jaayega

[When he comes, then for his companionship
The season of flowers wil stop within my compound]

5. aakirash woh bhi kahin ret pe baithi hogi
tera yeh pyaar bhi dariya hai uttar jaayega

[At the end of it all, she will also be sitting on the sands somwhere
Your love is also like a stream/sea, and will flow down/away]

Basically trying to say that, at the end of it all, love is not going to be
permanent. She will become lonely, and sit on some sand somewhere, waiting
for you, while your love which is not steady and determined, will flow away
like a stream of water or the waves that lash the shore.