Date: Wed, 23 Oct 96 16:01:00 PDT
From: Ramesh Hariharan (rameshh@tp.ac.sg)
Subject: Ghalib: yeh na thi hamari kismat...

Hi Folks
Another beautiful ghazal by who-else-but Ghalib! This has been posted before
by Lalit. I am retaining the "matla", along with Lalit's translation. The
rest of the shers are new!

1. yeh na thi hamari kismat, ki wisaal-e-yaar hota,
agar aur jeetay rehtay, yahi intezaar hota !

[I was not lucky enough to meet my friend,
If I would have lived any longer, I would have been still waiting for this meeting !]

2. tere waade par jiye ham to ye jaan jhooT jaanaa
ke KHushee se mar na jaate agar 'eitabaar hota?

[When I lived for your promise, I believed this life to be a lie
For, would'nt I have died of happiness, if I had the trust?]

Again, the play of words by Ghalib. He says "Look! You promised(to come or
whatever), but failed to keep it, and I felt that this life was all a lie,
and of no use. If I had trusted you, then your promise would have made me so
happy, that I would have died of the happiness". How he torments his beloved
with his taunts?

3. koee mere dil se pooche tere teer-e-neemkash ko
ye KHalish kahaaN se hotee jo jigar ke paar hota

[Someone should ask me about your half drawn arrow
Where would this pain be, if it had gone through my heart!]

teer-e-neemkash = half drawn arrow, but I think here Ghalib means something
else, rather than directly talking about half-drawn arrows. I leave it to
the IDD ghazalers to come up with interpretations of this sher, and post it on IDD?

4. ye kahaaN ki dostee hai ke bane haiN dost naaseh
koee chaarasaaz hota, koee GHamgusaar hota

[What sort of a friendship is this, that my friends have become my councellors
Some could have tried to heal my pain, some could have been my sympathizers]

5. ye masaail-e-tasawwuf, ye tera bayaaN 'GHalib' !
tujhe ham walee samajhate, jo na baada_KHwaar hota

[These topics of mysticism, and your style of putting it "ghalib"!
We would have considered you our master, had you not been a boozer]

Dictionary : wisaal-e-yaar = meeting with lover; 'eitabaar = trust/confidence;
teer-e-neemkash = half drawn arrow; KHalish = pain; naaseh = councellor;
chaarasaaz = healer; GHamgusaar = sympathizer; masaail = topics;
tasawwuf = mysticism; walee = prince/friend/lord/guardian/master; baada_KHwaar = boozer