Divan-e-Ghalib

(Assorted Ghazals of Mirza Asadullah Khan “GHALIB”)

Translation, Explanation & Transliteration by
Dr. Frances W. Pritchett, Columbia University

[More on Dr. Frances at http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00fwp/]

यह न थी हमार
क़समत क वसाल-ए यार होता
अगर और जीते रहते यह
इनतज़ार होता

yih nah thī hamārī qismat kih visāl-e yār hotā

agar aur jīte rahte yihī intizār hotā
1) this was not our destiny/fate, that union with the beloved would take place

2a) if we had kept on living longer, there would have been this very same waiting
2b) if we had kept on living longer, this itself would have been waiting

तरे व`दे पर िजये हम तो यह जान झट

ू जाना
क ख़वुशी से मर न जाते अगर इ`तबार होता

tire va%de par jiye ham to yih jān jhūt jānā

kih khvushī se mar nah jāte agar i%tibār hotā
1a) if we lived on your promise, then know this-- we knew [it to be] false
1b) if we lived on your promise, then this, {dearest / life}, we knew to be false
1c) we lived on your promise-- know [reading tū] this: we knew [it to be] false

2) for would we not have died of happiness, if we had had trust/confidence [in it]?
तर
नाज़क
ु , से जाना क बंधा था `अहद बोदा
कभी तू न तोड़ सकता अगर उसतव
ु ार होता

tirī nāzukī se jānā kih bañdhā thā %ahd bodā

kabhī tū nah tor saktā agar ustuvār hotā
1) from your delicacy [I/we] knew that the vow/promise had been made/bound weak/loose
2) you could never have broken it, if it had been strong/firm

कोई मेरे 3दल से पूछे तरे तीर-ए नीम-कश को

यह ख़5लश कहां से होती जो िजगर के पार होता

ko0ī mere dil se pūchhe tire tīr-e nīm-kash ko

yih khalish kahāñ se hotī jo jigar ke pār hotā
1) let someone ask my heart about your half-drawn arrow
2) where would this pricking/anxiety have come from, if it had [gone through and] been
beyond the liver?

यह कहां क, दोसती है क बने ह7 दोसत ना5सह

कोई चारह-साज़ होता कोई ग़म-गुसार होता

yih kahāñ kī dostī hai kih bane haiñ dost nāsih

ko0ī chārah-sāz hotā ko0ī ġham-gusār hotā
1a) what kind of friendship is this, that friends have become Advisors?!
1b) what kind of friendship is this, that the Advisor has become a friend?!

2a) if someone had been a helper, if someone had been a sympathizer!

2b) if there had been some helper, if there had been some sympathizer!
रग-ए सनग से टपकता वह लहू क फर न थमता
िजसे ग़म समझ रहे हो यह अगर शरार होता

rag-e sang se tapaktā vuh lahū kih phir nah thamtā

jise ġham samajh rahe ho yih agar sharār hotā
1) from the rock-vein would drip that blood which would never then/again stop
2) if this which you are considering 'grief' were a spark

ग़म अगर;चह जां-गु5सल है पह कहां बच< क 3दल है

ग़म-ए `इशक़ अगर न होता ग़म-ए रोज़गार होता

ġham agarchih jāñ-gusil hai pah kahāñ bacheñ kih dil hai
ġham-e %ishq agar nah hotā ġham-e rozgār hotā
1) although grief is life-destroying, how would we escape, since/while there is a heart?

2a) if there were not the grief of passion, there would be the grief of {livelihood / the whole
world}
2a) if it were not the grief of passion, it would be the grief of {livelihood / the whole world}

कहूं कस से म7 क कया है शब-ए ग़म बुर

बला है
मुझे कया बुरा था मरना अगर एक बार होता

kahūñ kis se maiñ kih kyā hai shab-e ġham burī balā hai
mujhe kyā burā thā marnā agar ek bār hotā
1) to whom might/would I say what/how it is-- the night of grief is a bad disaster!
2) what harm/bad to me was dying, if it had taken place one time?
हुए मर के हम जो =सवा हुए कयंू न ग़रक़-ए दरया
न कभी जनाज़ह उठता न कह
ं मज़ार होता

hu0e mar ke ham jo rusvā hu0e kyūñ nah ġharq-e daryā

nah kabhī janāzah uthtā nah kahīñ mazār hotā
1) when/since/if having died, we became notorious/disgraced-- why were we not
drowned/immersed in the sea?
2) neither would a funeral procession ever have arisen, nor would there anywhere be a tomb

उसे कौन दे ख सकता क यगानह है वह यकता

जो दई
ू क, बू भी होती तो कह
ं दो चार होता

use kaun dekh saktā kih yagānah hai vuh yaktā

jo dū0ī kī bū bhī hotī to kahīñ do chār hotā
1) who would have been able to see him? for that Oneness is unique

2a) if there had been even a whiff of twoness [in Him], we would have met [Him] somewhere
2b) if there had been even a whiff of twoness, then somehow [He] would be two or four

यह मसाइल-ए तसववफ़
ु यह तरा बयान ग़ा5लब
तुझे हम वल
समझते जो न बादह-ख़वार होता

yih masā0il-e tasavvuf yih tirā bayān ġhālib

tujhe ham valī samajhte jo nah bādah-khvār hotā
1a) these problems of mysticism! this discourse/exposition of yours, Ghalib!
1b) these problems of mysticism-- this [is] your discourse/exposition, Ghalib!

2) we would consider you a saint-- if you weren't a wine-drinker

Note on Urdu/Farsi transliteration in Devanagari

As you look at the verses, you'll notice many non-standard spellings. The biggest reason is that the basic
transliteration system was designed to reflect Urdu spelling and pronunciation. Since we couldn't
consistently generate modern standard Hindi spellings from it, rather than offer a kind of 'halfway house'
version we decided to offer direct reproduction of the Urdu letters. Thus you'll see 'raastah ' rather than
'raastaa '. At the price of not seeing what you're used to, you'll gain extra information (usable for metrical
analysis and other purposes) about the letters that Ghalib actually wrote. Our system will bring you as close
as possible to a direct experience of the ghazals as Ghalib composed them. In other words, it will be a
transliteration-- a scholarly study tool-- like the roman (=English) script transliterations that are also
provided.

Only a few very basic exceptions to this policy have been made, because they are so common and so 'fixed'
in one's mind: yih and vuh and nah all look as they do in modern standard Hindi.

Above all, consider the vexed case of conjuncts. It is helpful to the transliteration-user to see that a word is
pronounced faryaadii or ta;hriir with the far and ta;h as initial long syllables. And of course, it looks fine in
Urdu script too. But in Devanagari, it turned out to generate absurdly many odd-looking conjuncts. To avoid
this problem, we disabled the conjunct-forms in Devanagari, so that there are now no conjuncts, which is
bad but still the lesser of two evils. The only way to really fix the problem would be to type in,
say, naqsh on the one hand (which should have a conjunct), and farayaadii and ta;hariir on the other hand
(which shouldn't). But these latter forms look wildly un-Ghalibian; they look as if the word would begin with
two short syllables, so they could be very misleading to the reader. Thus we show no conjuncts at all (which
is the way things normally look in Urdu), as the least bad of the available choices.

The (very rare) letter zhe has no Devanagari representation in any of the fonts presently available, and so
will appear as z.

Forms like miraa and tiraa (for meraa and teraa ) reflect the shortening of vowels for metrical purposes.

Traditional Urdu usage frequently has vuh and yih even in plural situations, where modern standard Hindi
would have ve and ye .

So please accept my apologies for the odd look of the text in Devanagari. I'm hoping that the advantage of
receiving accurate, reliable information about what Ghalib actually wrote will more than compensate for
the unusual-looking spellings. Count on me to keep an eye on the situation and try to figure out the best
available options over time. For the present, just remember that you're seeing a sort of transliteration of
the Urdu, rather than an attempt at modern standard Hindi spelling.

Special Note on “Ghalib participates in Durga Puja”

I wonder whether Ghalib has ever been used to help celebrate Durga Puja. But I'm certain he'd be very
pleased to be part of the occasion. As I'm sure you know he was a free-thinking person with broad
sympathies for all religions.