Mir Taqi Mir

I couldn't stir or speak, I'd grown so weak,
Even to life my eye-lids was a trying feat.

If I tried to stand, my feet beneath would shake,
My body would tremble, my limbs would quake.

My legs would totter, my head would reel,
Blast-like appeared to me even the gentle breeze.

Slowly my faculties began to stablize,
Day by day I regained my clearer sense of sight.

Debility from my body did at last depart,
With the vigour returning, life resumed its part.

Who was there, after all concerned about my life,
But for my tenacious will I would sure have died.

My body's failing strength at last revived,
I wasn't fated, so it seemed. so soon to die.

I had staged a comeback from the farthest end,
From the very edge of grave I had been returned.

Rarely that illusory shape sprang before my sight,
I would catch a glimpse of her, albeit, once a while.

She wouldn't look at me with love, as heretofore,
Despairingly she beat her head against the walls and doors.

Sometimes she felt becalmed, sometimes ill-at-ease,
Sometimes, maddened in my love, restless would she reel.

Tears of blood for my sake sometime she would spill,
Or with her chin in hand stare statue-still.

Now she would point out her broken heart to me,
Or charge me to my face with infidelity.

Now with her hand on heart stood that moon-like shape,
Now she'd cast on me a longing, wistful gaze.

Now she was found bidding me adieu,
Saying that this woeful life she couldn't endure.

Now she was callous and full of foul abuse,
Now sent messages through the wind that blew.

Come, so we may change,Mirza Ghalib

The laws of the heavens;
Let us alter the decree of destiny
By the circulation of the heavy goblet.

Let us enjoy the spectacle
With our eyes and heart;
With the humility of our heart and soul.
Let us transform our loss.

We will sit in the corner
And open the door;
We will turn the guard into the street
And throw him on the footpath.

If there is any seizing and holding
By the officer of the police, -we care not;
If we receive a present from the king
We shall return it to him.

If the sage speaks the same language
As ours, we would not talk to him;
If Khalil is our guest,
We would ask him to go away.

We would dismiss the boon companion,
The minstrel and the saqi from the assembly,
And turnout the experienced lady
Who manages our affairs?

Sometimes, with a show of courtesy
We will mingle our speech with grace,
And sometimes while snatching a kiss
We would turn our tongue in the mouth.

With the ardour of our breast
We will stop the breath of morning;
We will safeguard .the world from the affliction
Of the heat of the day.

With the thought of tomorrow,Mirza Ghalib

Be not niggardly today,O Saqi;
This would be disrespectful
To the Saqi of Paradise.
Why have we become so contemptible
Today, when till yesterday ,
Our honour did not tolerate
The impudence of the angel.
Listening to sweet music, why does it seem
That one's life is draining away?
Is it because we hear His voice
In the notes of the lute and the rebeck?
The steed of age is galloping;
Let us see where it will stop;
The hand does not hold the rein
And the foot is not in the stirrup.
I am as far removed
From my own reality
As my twisting and turning
Stems from the thought of the other.
The reality of the sight of God,
The one who sees, and what is seen,
All in effect are one; I am amazed
Then, what is all this witnessing?
The sea's substance consists of
The shifting appearance of forms;
What then is in the drop,
And the bubble, and the wave?
Coyness, even with oneself
'Is but a form of dalliance;
How many unveiled ones
Go about covered by a veil?
The adorning of her beauty
Leaves no time for ease;
Even beneath the veil, her mirror
Constantly confronts her.

That sigh from the heart,Mirza Ghalib

Has not the importance of a straw,
Although it can cause
A crack in the sun.
That magic is of no avail
For the fulfilment of one's desires,
That magic by which
The boat floats on the mirage.
Ghalib, I have for some time
Given up drinking wine; I drink only
When it is a cloudy day,
Or a moonlit night

Ye that once lived, and now lost are whose traces,Mirza Ghalib

His are peace and rest of nights
His ALL the pride.
The grief no longer needed 'its remedy;
I got no better, better still not to be..
Why should you gather my rivals?
It will be fun, not my trial.
If you don't want to test your dagger's lust,
Where else might I find someone to try my luck?
How sweet your lips happened to be,
Even insults did not upset my enemy.
She will be coming over - a rumour is hot in the air.
Just today in my house not a piece of mat is there.
I was not Nimrod, one who proclaimed God to be.
I was your servant, but what good was it to me?
I gave my life, but it was His gift.
To be- fair, I did no justice to it.
The wound though healed, blood did not stop to drain.
Work once hindered, would not get back on track again.
A robbery or breaking of a heart - What is it?
The heart-breaker snatched and got away with it.
Read something at least, for people say,
"Ghalib is not singing his lyrics today."

His are love's delights...Mirza Ghalib

By whose adoring side
You sit on whose arm your lovely hair scatters...
This is all that matters.
Eyes, that my lacking fate has turned into a keen-edged Sword
To pierce and rent my heart...Why O Lord?
Should still sink into my soul,
Possessing all.
Were man to suffer pangs of pain,
Again, and still again,
Even grief would lose its sting.
Of sorrows I've had so full a share,
That now they are almost easy to bear.
If Ghalib still will sorrow thus,
He cannot long remain with us...
Good friends, good fellow creatures, hearken ye,
How poorer far, deserted and denied, this world will be.

Laid in the dust forever to rest...Mirza Ghalib

Is it some of these lost faces
Are in the poppy and rose manifest?
Once life's pageant I too knew
Of beauty rare, of glorious hue.
Now like pictures on a painted alcove: lifeless, still,
Its dead images, the alcoves of my memory fill.
O brilliant constellation of stars seven,
Seven daughters of the sky
That all day veiled lie,
What sudden emotion in your heart, sweet, uncertain
Prompts you ail
When night doth fall
To rent the curtain?
It is the night of parting
Let blood tears flow...
I will think, with day's departing,
I've set two candle flames aglow

The world is as children's playful fun to me,Mirza Ghalib

Night and day this show is performed before me.
The throne of Solomon is but a pastime for me
The Miracle of the Messiah is a valuless trifle before me
The appearance of the world is only a name
The existence of things is but a fancy before me

My love, My life ...Faiz Ahmed Faiz

If I were sure of this, O my love, my life
!If your weary heart and breast, your despondent eyes,
Soothed by my love and care would indeed revive;
If my word of solace could act as anodyne,
To relume your darkened brain, uplife your mind,
Wash away the blot of shame from your brow depressed,
And restore to its health, this your faded prime;
If I were sure of this, O my love, my life!
I would entertain you day and night, morn and eve,
For ever sing for your delight songs light and sweet,
Of spring and gardens, and of waterfalls,
Of rising sun, the sailing moon, and the shining youth,
How the frigid beauties proud,
Melt in the heat of warm embrace,

Ask me not, my love,Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Ask me not, my love, for the love of former days,
I had thought, with you around life 'uld be dazzling bright,
With your griefs to fill my heart, other griefs would vaporize,
Your beauty keeps the spring alive,
The world contains naught else but your starry eyes,
To own you is to own the fortune's richest prize.
It wasn't so; I simply wished it could be so!
Besides the griefs of love, there're other griefs in life,
Besides the joy of union there're other delights.
The dark, devilish spells, o'er several centuries cast,
Woven in silks and satins, in brocade finely wrought;
Human bodies for sale in every street and shop,
Bodies bathed in blood, splashed with gory spots,
I cannot help but see them all.
Your beauty still attracts the heart; but what to do?
There are other griefs in life,
Besides the joy of union, there're other delights

MOHABBAT