Saturday 3 August 2019

Ghalib's ghazal 3


Save Qais, none found cherishable the duty to the Imperishable Face
Tho', by Envy narrowed, Sahara's eye, barred Beauty from Grace

Saudade scrubbed clear the charred cross on the heart's oak
The scar's buried gold had but a hallmark of smoke

In a dream, it did seem, there was commerce with thee
Waking, neither profit, nor loss, can we see

My heart has been enrolled in the school-house of Grief
What arrived as Faith but departed as Belief

But that the martyr's shroud might conceal my prideful sins against nudity
However accoutred, Being's nakedness is my triumph over incredulity

Farhad's pickaxe shattered the light at the end of the tunnel it dug
Such Death is the the hangover of Duty as drug





juz qais aur koʾī nah āyā bah rū-e kār
ṣaḥrā magar bah tangī-e chashm-e ḥasūd thā
āshuftagī ne naqsh-e suvaidā kiyā durust
z̤āhir huʾā kih dāġh kā sarmāyah dūd thā
thā ḳhvāb meñ ḳhayāl ko tujh se muʿāmi lah
jab āñkh khul gaʾī nah ziyāñ thā nah sūd thā
letā hūñ maktab-e ġham-e dil meñ sabaq hanūz
lekin yihī kih raft gayā aur būd thā
ḍhāñpā kafan ne dāġh-e ʿuyūb-e barahnagī
maiñ varnah har libās meñ nang-e vujūd thā
teshe baġhair mar nah sakā kohkan asad
sargashtah-e ḳhumār-e rusūm-o-quyūd thā
ʿ

No comments: