by ASGHAR VASANWALA
Dear friends,
Ghalib, his Ghazals, his poems, his genius, and his wits have always fascinated millions including myself. I am sorry for the delay of several months in publishing this issue.
This is my 59th 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 of 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.
For reading in Urdu Script Click: http://lists.elistx.com/archives/blank/201103/docxcQmJWX9mlm.docx
Please scroll down for Gujarati & Hindi
This is the 4th verse of Ghalib’s 19th Ghazal.
Poochh mat rusvai-e-andaz-e-istaGHna-e-husn
Don’t ask me how badly that godess’s unconcerned beauty got degraded and disgraced
Dast marhun-e-hina, ruKHsar rehan-e-GHaza tha
Beauty of her hands is crushed under obligation of henna, and glamor of her face is pawned to makeup materials.
rusvai=disgrace andaz=manner in which istaGHna=unconcerned of anything, doesn’t depend on anyone’s liking or disliking, like God. Husn=beauty, belle, woman of exceptional beauty
Dast=hand marhun=mortgaged, obligated hina=henna ruKHsar= cheeks rehan=pawned, mortgaged GHaza=face powder, face cosmetic, makeup materials
Meaning:
Ghalib reveres his darling as a beauty-goddess. He thinks her body as perfect, flawless, and beyond critisism, a belle. In Quran, Allah is described as Samad meaning “faultless, unconcerned, and beyond criticism” God is not in need of any cosmetics or makeup.
Ghalib thinks his beloved in terms of “Samad”; however, he uses a synonym “Istaghna”. When Ghalib sees his beloved with her hands embellished with henna and face covered with makeup materials, he gets very displeased. He is shocked because use of these beauty products gives impression that her beauty is wanting; it needs enhancement. Ghalib says, “Don’t ask me how badly the “unconcerned” aspect of her beauty became beholden. Now her hands are indebted to Henna and her face is obligated to face powder. Now people will think her beauty was not perfect after all, it needed enhancement.
Finer aspects: God is a perfect beauty. What happens if god used beauty product for enhancing his beauty? Surely, his prestige will go down the drain and would lose his status of perfect/unconcerned being. In this verse, Ghalib has expressed a very delicate thought.
This is the 5th verse of Ghalib’s 19th ghazal.
Nala-e-dil ne diye, avraq-e-laKHt-e-dil, be-bad
In your love, my heart is chopped into slices, and my excessive lamenting destroyed even those slices.
Yadgrar-e-nala, ek divan-e-be’shiraza tha
Memento of lamentation, the slices, were like an unbound poem book, its pages scattered for want of a thread
Nala=lamentation, weeping avrak=plural of varq=page, pages, laKHt=piece, slice be-bad=destroyed
yadgar=remembrance, memory, nostalgia divan= poem book of a poet shiraza=string that binds pages of a book
Meaning:
In your love my heart is chopped. Now it is just a collection of slices; the slices remain unbound and scattered for want of a binding thread. In other words, my heart is my Divan (a poem book) and slices are its scattered pages. My excessive lamenting and crying torrential tears in memory of past lamentations, destroyed the very Divan that contained chronicle of these lamentations.
Finer aspects:
Good play on words. In excess zeal, many times we destroy things that we cherish the most. Ghalib hits that point in this verse.
For Gujarati script, please click this link, it is virus free: http://lists.elistx.com/archives/blank/201103/docxZAZg6GAsQb.docx or http://tinyurl.com/4gz9wdg
For Hindi script, please click this link, it is virus free:
http://lists.elistx.com/archives/blank/201103/docxtsidOKxiYl.docx or http://tinyurl.com/4gsqulf
Asghar Vasanwala can be reached at asgharfv@gmail.com