by ASGHAR VASANWALA
Dear friends,
Ghalib, his Ghazals, his poems, his genius, and his wits have always fascinated millions including myself.
This is my 62nd installment. I have received excellent response from lot of friends, both Urdu and non-Urdu speakers. Please know that this is my own, Asghar Vasanwala’s, work and not a forwarding of someone else’s work as some you thought. Please forward this to as many friends you can. Also, please send me your comments/complements. I will appreciate if you forward me email addresses of your Urdu/non-Urdu friends.
Only Urdu explanation is partially borrowed from various authors, everything else is my creation.
Here are today’s verses (she’r) & its explanations in Urdu, Gujarati, and English For my past work from beginning, please click the following link http://www.mirza-ghalib.org/ and then on left column click Ghalib series. On top of that page, you’ll see 1 to 65 numbers. Please click them one by one and read my past explanations I guarantee you’ll enjoy them.
This is the 6th verse of Ghalib’s 19th ghazal.
Khanazad-e-zulf haiN, zanjeer se bhageNge kyon?
I am peon of her locks, why would I run from chains
HaiN giraftar-e-wafa, zindaN se gabhraveNge kya?
I am already in prison of loyalty, how can they threaten me of lockup
khanazad = slave zulf=locks, tresses, giraftar = captive, captured, prisoner
Meaning:
As usual, Ghalib is telling a story. Public and ombudsman do not like Ghalib’s irrational behavior and love craze. They tell him to behave or he will be put behind the bars. They probably appoint a mentor for counseling him and monitoring his behavior. Ghalib retorts. I am already captured in ringlets of her locks and I am not one who will flee from the bondage loyalty. The one who is is gripped in enslavement of her locks and in ringlets of loyalty has no reason to flee. I am accustomed to troubles. Chaining and confinement is product of loving that diva. Why should be I fear trouble
This is the 7th verse of Ghalib’s 18th ghazal.
Hai ab is mamure meiN qehat-e-gham-e-ulfat, Asad
shortage of love-sobs has currently gripped this locality, oh Asad
Hum ne yeh mana, ke dilli meiN raheN, khaveNge kya?
I am thinking, if I must live in Delhi, I would starve.
mamura = locality, area, meaning Delhi gham-e-ulfat=love sob Asad= Ghalib’s birth name
Meaning: Foreign expeditions of last centuries sieged, sacked, and ruined Delhi several times, once during Ghalib’s life, in 1857. He then lost lot of relatives, friends, and protégé including women he loved. Ghalib says, now there is severe scarcity of pretty women in the town. Consequently, there is nothing to fall in love with and consume love sobs. Lovers live on that diet. If lovers live here in Delhi, what would they eat? Let us migrate to a place of plenty beauty.
Ghalibologists’ opinions: Famine is a calamity. Meaning not only no love sobs of we also do not have any friends and relatives. There is no one left to console, cry for. Word “Love in verse is used in sense of interpersonal relationship between a person and his friends, family, girlfriends etc. Saha also derives the same meaning.
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Asghar Vasanwala can be reached at asgharf@att.net