Saturday 14 March 2020

Some couplets from Ghalib's Ghazal 48

From my heart, the sous rature of the honeymoon thought of her hennaed finger tracing its location
Is that abysmal torment in which nails are pulled out till dishonour rise to the occasion

 That we are now of her tyrannical atrocities so deprived, Harken to us Lord!
In enmity to the paladins of fidelity, she has surpassed Nimrod!

The droplet, flushed & aglitter, finds felicity only dissolved in oceans obscure
As when Pain passes the limit of what is bitter, it becomes its own cure

In the tug-of-war between medicine and malady my heart so frayed
That longing to be unpicked erased thy knot in Love's braid

This was by thou alone decreed, that my fated combination lock of features
Spell doom for our continued cohabitation as loving creatures


dil se miṭnā tirī angusht-e ḥināʾī kā ḳhayāl
ho gayā gosht se nāḳhun kā judā ho jānā

ab jafā se bhī haiñ maḥrūm ham al-lâh al-lâh
is qadar dushman-e arbāb-e vafā ho jānā

ʿishrat-e qat̤rah hai daryā meñ fanā ho jānā
dard kā ḥad se guzarnā hai davā ho jānā

dil huʾā kashmakash-e chārah-e zaḥmat meñ tamām
miṭ gayā ghisne meñ is ʿuqde kā vā ho jānā

tujh se qismat meñ mirī ṣūrat-e qufl-e abjad
thā likhā bāt ke bante hī judā ho jānā

NB. these selected couplets have been rearranged.

No comments: