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Showing posts with label urdu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label urdu. Show all posts

January 29, 2010

Hazaron Kwaishe Aisi

Couldn't resist trying this translation out. Was drawn in by the first line and hence this ludicrous attempt (No poison pens please!):

Desires flood my heart, each stealing my breath away...
And with each escaped wish, they grow more within...

Tales that abound of Eden scorning Adam
Fade when they face my forlorn separation from you

As if love distinguished between life and death!
I live every dying breath, unwavering eyes locked on your furtive glances

Heavens forbid that you disarrange your sacred veil!
Lest they too hide my beloved's face!

A world separates the preacher from drunken merriment;
Yet I (Ghalib) chanced upon him by the tavern

hazaaron Khvaahishen aisii ki har Khvaaish pe dam nikale
bahut nikale mere armaaN lekin phir bhii kam nikale

nikalanaa Khuld se aadam kaa sunate aaye hain lekin
bahut beaabaruu hokar tere kuuche se ham nikale

muhabbat men nahiin hai farq jiine aur marane kaa
usii ko dekh kar jiite hain jis kaafir pe dam nikale

Khudaa ke vaaste pardaa na kaabe se uThaa zaalim
Kahiin aisaa na ho yaaN bhii vahii kaafir sanam nikale

KahaaN maiKhaane ka daravaazaa 'Ghalib' aur kahaaN vaaiz
par itanaa jaanate hain kal vo jaataa thaa ke ham nikale

k (who is a great big fan of shayaris and ghazals and Jagjit Singh and stuff) and I brain-stormed this afternoon to figure out the meaning of the verses. But several of them could be interpreted in various ways. I still can't tie the last two lines to the song. What does he mean when he comments on the preacher at the bar? Is the preacher Ghalib himself? Perhaps he thought he was above such merriment but met himself (lured into) and walking out of it?

And the lines preceding that -- whom is he talking to? Who should not lift the veil? Some lady he meets? I assumed he met a woman with a veil on her face and requests that her veil not be lifted lest it hide the face of the woman he loves but cannot get...
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